Oldenburg & Zorgvliet

We were lucky enough to enjoy a couple of wine farms on the Helshoogte Pass yesterday afternoon. It was a stunning day and the surrounding mountains gave us a magnificent backdrop.

And at Oldenburg, the wines were pretty good too. Just good though, not “wow”. And with prices starting at R350 and finishing at R1500 a bottle, they really needed to be “wow”.

Ok. That R1500 was an outlier, but there were several wines in each of the 500s, 700s and 800s. And that seemed really excessive. I’m not claiming to be a big wine expert, but I’ve drunk enough and learned enough to know how good a local wine needs to be to command those sorts of pricces. And these really weren’t.

And that does raise the question of what’s going on with asking that much at the cellar door for very decent – but not exceptional – SA wine.

Is it for the tourists? Or is it for the Gautengaleng posers? The tasting was expensive, but it was exceptional: it felt like a premium experience, with a passionate and very knowledgeable host and Argon injected bottles so as to preserve the integrity of the wine. Ooh!
And, as mentioned above, the setting is incredible.

And while any wine (or any thing) is, of course, worth whatever anyone is willing to pay for it, I just don’t see why anyone would pay that for it and how they can justify changing that much for their wares.

And then Zorgvliet, where the wine was nowhere near as good, the setting nowhere near as dramatic, and the service rather hurried and impersonal. Least said, soonest forgotten.

But the prices still utterly ridiculous.

Is this the way we’re going now? Chancing our arm on the favourable exchange rate and some gullible and slightly pissed tour groups? The tasting experience is one thing, sure: make it exceptional, make it memorable. Maybe charge a bit more. Make them want to come back.

But we don’t need to be charging that much for not “wow” wine.

For me, that’s not a good look. And it’s even worse when you’re just gullible and slightly pissed, but on the local end of the exchange rate. So let’s not be another country ripping tourists (and as a bycatch, locals) off. There are plenty of very good wineries producing very good wines for which they are not charging outrageous prices. Neethlingshof and even Spier are good examples off the top of my head if you happen to be out that way. (And if Spier is ripping tourists off less than you, something is up.)

And if they can do it, why can’t everywhere else?

Constantia Wine Route redux

When people think “Wine Route”, they generally think of Stellenbosch, Franschhoek, Paarl or Wellington (jks – no-one goes to Wellington deliberately). We think that Local is lekker though, so we headed just down the road to sample a bit of what Constantia had to offer.

It had been a while since we had been on the Constantia Wine Route, and we came far from doing all of it today. However, three wine farms and 19 wines later, we’d had a good time. It was only when we got back that I realised I hadn’t taken many photos. Having too much fun, see?

First up was Klein Constantia, where a tasting is R30 for 7 wines, but buy a bottle (or more) and they’ll waive the fee. The informative Johan helped us out. They still have their peculiar ‘stand up and taste’ set up, but the wines are superb, including (of course) their famous Vin de Constance and the last of their unusual, but incredible 2007 Madame Marlbrook. All I need is some fine quality seafood to pair it up with now.
I don’t have much more to add here. They just do stuff well, with understated elegance.

Then it was up the hill to Eagles’ Nest. It’s another beautiful place, without the spectacular views of its closest neighbours, but with enthusiastic service; it’s family friendly and tourist driven (it’s on the Red Bus wine tour). The wines though? Not all that. Perhaps the exception was their Little Eagle Rosé, which was alive with crisp strawberry flavours. Their flagship 2012 Shiraz was rather ordinary, and – I thought – vastly overpriced at R225 a bottle. Those Brits on the bus must have thought they were in heaven though. When you compare this with what you get in Tesco for what is essentially ten quid – suddenly you start to understand the pricing structure. R50 gets you a 5 wine tasting, and you have to spend over R300 per person to get that refunded.

Protea on the way up to Constantia Glen

And then onward and upward to Constantia Glen. Last time we were up here (amazingly 4 years ago to the day), we had the tiny place to ourselves. This time, we were greeted with a bright, modern, brand new tasting room and restaurant, plus literally hundreds of people. We got the last two seats at the bar and tucked into one of their cheese and charcuterie platters with a Premium (capital P) wine tasting (R80 for seven wines) for me and a white wine tasting (R55 for 4 wines) for Mrs 6k. Enoch may have helped her out with a couple of refills though. If you’re Enoch’s boss and you have a problem with this, then he didn’t. But he’s still great.

Wines here are excellent, especially their Estate Range Sauvignon Blanc with lots of grass and lots of green figs. On the reds, the bold Three is good, but the hugely rich and deep Five French blend is simply sublime and paired beautifully with the cheeses on the platter. We spent [rather a lot] here, meaning that our tasting was gratis and we have a nicely stocked wine rack for the foreseeable future. Winning.

We’re so lucky to have these amazing places right on our doorstep, but we sometimes need a reminder that they are there. So, let this blog post be it and give yourself a few hours off over the summer holiday enjoying some of the superb wine Constantia has to offer.

Not a sponsored post. Just a really good day.

Going South?

If you’re headed anywhere near L’Agulhas this holiday – you could do a lot worse than pop in here:

Quoin Rock (which is expected to sell for ±R120m later today) and Land’s End (their 2008 Syrah is magnificent) would be my pick of the bunch, but there’s plenty of others there to enjoy too…

Wine Boutique is on the crossroads in L’Agulhas.