With new eateries popping-up in the Stellenbosch surrounds to the frequent regularity of university students bearing a fresh tattoo, I remind myself that one should not discount the established, long-lived places where food can be eaten and wine consumed. Especially if these places are on wine farms providing good view, surrounded by verdant vineyards and looming mountains the colour of gun-steel.
Delheim Wine Estate is such a place, its heritage and provenance discernible in both its top-notch wines and the legacy of the Sperling family who pioneered this wine farm set on the glorious Simonsberg. It was, too, the first wine estate in Stellenbosch to offer food with which to accompany its fermented joys made from the grape, this back in 1974 when there were only some 10 wine estates in the region compared to the current 200.
Today one still finds the Delheim Garden Restaurant a charming, relaxed and civil establishment, situated just past the farm’s tasting room, with seating available inside or al fresco with breathtaking views towards Table Mountain some 40km off. It was a clear day when I met my friend Dr Ben Brand for lunch, and we sat outside at a subtly shaded table among a gaggle of visitors also out enjoying a crystal spring afternoon, where the sun glowed.
Ben and I were there to discuss the early writings of Ettiene Le Roux and John Irving, but the atmosphere was just too amicable and relaxed for serious literary issues, so we quickly turned to enthuse on the merits of films featuring the beauties of yonder. Charlotte Rampling, Faye Dunaway and the dear late Diane Keaton were remembered as we perused the menu while sipping cool glasses of Staying Alive Riesling, a collaboration between Delheim and German winemaker Herr Christoph Hammel. Ben said the wine had the long finish of Charlotte Rampling and was as dry as Vivien Leigh.
Appetites required sating, and the Delheim menu looked good, a sample of rustic elegance. Simple, fresh, and extremely appealing.
Starters included snoek pâté, springbok carpaccio and two different country salads. Main-courses ventured from ostrich bobotie and chicken curry to lamb shank, and
roasted aubergine for those of vegetarian disposition. There is also a meat-and-cheese platter for sharing, but this is best avoided when dining with Ben who, despite his sparse physique, hoovers anything on a plate before him, leaving the dining companion with crumbs and a bit.
The Staying Alive Riesling had sparked the food-need, so we both selected the springbok carpaccio, a brilliant meat to eat raw and sliced into wafer-thin portions.
The dish was savoury and silky, with the slightest hint of a venison tang which makes one reminisce of the Great Karoo, the novels of Olive Schreiner and herds of tasty edible animals.
We downed the last of the bright, white-fruited Staying Alive Riesling and moved onto a bottle of Delheim Grand Reserve, the Cabernet Sauvignon-led Bordeaux blend that Spatz Sperling, Delheim’s late patriarch, had conceived in 1981. The wine tasted of earth, wild berries, pine-needle and of life itself.
For the main courses, I selected the fish cakes made from the glorious snoek, a strong-flavoured fish that is more savoury than maritime. Ben’s Germanic roots saw him order the eintopf. This colourful dish brings together the meaty elements of knackwurst and chorizo with butter-beans and lentils, the whole thing drifting in a fragrant tomato sauce.
Now, anyone who says that a full-bodied red wine is not a perfect match for maritime edibles has never had a Delheim snoek fish-cake. Generously portioned, a crisp coating reveals tender mounds of shredded snoek, the fish’s flavour-burst elevated with the accurate application of selected herbs. Some fresh greeneries and egg-plant were lying next to the fish-cakes, revitalising the palate between hungry mouthfuls of fish and draughts of the deep, soulful and profound Delheim Grand Reserve.
Ben expressed immense satisfaction with his eintopf, a dish he described as “hearty and substantial, yet lifted with the bright, vigorous flavours of the scarlet tomato
sauce, with the chorizo and knackwurst providing a succulent carnivorous kick.” I snuck a spoonful of the eintopf’s beans and can concur that the taste caused a tango in the mouth showing the skilful use of spice and sharp cooking technique.
There was no room for dessert, even for Ben’s seemingly hollow stomach, and the meal was as completely satisfying as the ambiance of this classic Cape Winelands eatery where the heartbeat of Delheim and Stellenbosch is omnipresent.