Early-ish breakfast, and we were on the road to Stellenbosch by 11am. We went for a quick drive through Stellenbosch town (which reminded me why I didn't like it years ago, and still don't really - it does not have the charm of Franschhoek at all), and then up the road to Kanonkop.
Kanonkop was very pretty, and we got quite a charming lady pouring for us (not as young or pretty as SS preferred) and she very helpfully gave us some pointers for other wineries to visit based on what we had liked at Kanonkop. There was no point in buying wine at Kanonkop since we should get them at home in the UK, but I did buy a couple of the combination wine pourers/stoppers they used there, as they were very unusual and seemed to work well.
So, taking her advice, we headed over to Hartenberg. This was about a 30 minute drive over the other side of the valley, and again was beautifully situated, with a lovely tasting room which also served light lunches.
We got a rather gay pourer here, but he knew his stuff perhaps better than anyone to date, and was very enthusiastic. He took a bit of a shine to us (could it have been SS's tan?) and so we got pourings of their select range as well as the general range. We loved their wines, and were very happy to find out that they had a distributor in Luxembourg, and that the prices of the wines had not really reset for the changes in R/Euro/£ exchange rate over the previous months. So we ordered 6 bottles, and went downstairs to pay. Since we were there we also picked up a bottle of the Vin de Pailles which was a delicious dessert wine that apparently was matured over hay, giving it a very unique taste indeed. Very nice. That was not available through the Luxembourg distributor apparently, so we had to take a bottle on the spot.
Back to the car, and we decided to continue following the Kanonkop lady's advice, and headed over to De Waal. We took the long route unknowing to us (relying on the out of scale wine map of Stellenbosch). But an apple, a pack of crisps and some juice along the way made the journey go along very pleasantly.
De Waal was a very nice place also, although a lot more modern inside the tasting room with large copper vats and a slight smell of disinfectant.
Our pourer was again a charming young lady, and whilst we weren't bowled over by the cheaper wines, we did quite like the Top of the Hill Pinotage. When we found out it came in a nice box, that was SS sold, so off we headed with yet another bottle of wine! As we were driving out from the farm through the vines, we pulled over to take some photographs of the distant hills,
and SS decided to fulfill one of his dreams and try the actual grapes. So quickly down a ditch, into the vines, snatching some grapes, and back over to eat them. Hilarious. He said the grapes were actually rather nice.
We decided we had had enough wine, and time was marching on, so we headed back over to Franschhoek. Along the R310 we stopped at Hilcrest Farms that Katherine had recommended - this was a berry farm with the best selection of jams I had ever seen. It was like an Aladdin's cave and I was very excited!
I ended up buying one jar of Tayberry jam (which is a hybrid of blackberries and raspberries that was actually developed near the River Tay inScotland). Tayberries are delicious but never really took off as they are quite hard to pick apparently. I also bought a jar of Cape Fig and alnut jam as that sounded like it would go well with cheese. The jars were quite heavy and would be a problem to get back to the UK as they were more than 100ml, so I couldn't buy anymore... :-(
We stopped at Pick n Pay for more water (SS had bought sparkling water by mistake the previous trip), and then into our tanning clothes and out by the pool for an hour back at Akademie Street.
By the time we headed to the Tasting Room I was actually quite hungry. The decor of the room was uninspiring, but I knew to expect that. The service was very good tho'. We were excited to see the Boekenhoutskloof Syrah 2005 on the wine list, so ordered that (turned out to be a mistake as it really was too heavy with all the food we ate). Food wise we did not go for the 8 course taster menu, instead we picked 5 courses from a list of about 20. I love this concept - it meant you could go for 2 starters and 3 desserts if you wanted, they really don't care.
Unfortunately as mentioned my camera had a brain attack, so I can't put the photos of the food up on this blog. But here is what I had:
Amuses bouches:
pork belly crisp
Course 1:
Sweetcorn soup with truffle oil on top - quite thin but very flavoursome
Course 2:
Crisp skinned yellow tail with a mound of crushed potatoes mixed with peas a thick parmesan sauce swiped on the plate and a tomato and red pepper sauce. Nice combination of flavours but nothing really mindblowing.
Course 3:
Braised lamb neck with a mix of yoghurt and fennel, caramelised onion, two crispy almond and potato croquetees, with pickled jewberry. Fantastic dish - the texture of the lamb was amazing, and SS loved this one too.
Course 4:
Whipped gorgonzola with chives and cream cheese, on pickled pear and a pistacio shortbread, with mustard crisps on top. The cheese could have been a stronger flavour, but a very accomplished dish.
Amuses bouche:
berries and yoghurt
Course 5:
pressed pineapple with indian spices, with a garam masala frangipani slice, a scoop of coconut sorbet on top and a line of intense coriander minced with coconut. My favourite dish of the night - absolutely superb and such an interesting concept. The garam masala frangipani was a light curry flavoured cake - sounds awful but it was SO good.
SS had the following courses:
Course 1:
soup as well
Course 2:
yellow tail as well
Course 3:
Sliced crispy duck breast on a slice of pea parfait, three tortellinis with confit duck leg, nectarine sauce dollops and juniper sauce swirls. He said it was lovely, but still kept looking longingly at my lamb neck
Course 4:
Roasted wildebeest loin sliced with an aubergine souffle, butternut foam enclosed in a crisped roundel with tomato underneath, and more wildebeest. I was so happy that my course was the cheese one at this stage, as we were both so full that SS could not finish the wildebeest, and it was very rich.
Course 5:
Slices of boysenberry parfait, a swirl of bitter chocolate ganache with booysenberry foam, piles of sherbet and honey parfait. SS was so full he took one taste of each bit, and left it.
We asked for the bill, and the waitress kindly tried to take the label off the bottle for us (no luck). They delivered a whole load of petit fours which we could not even vaguely touch, but they also very nicely boxed these up for us.
We were both so full after 5 courses, that we could only watch in amazement by the elderly American couple at the table next to us who went for the 8 course tasting menu. They steadily worked their way through it, cleaning their plates. I can't believe they managed to eat so much, when I couldn't finish my delicious 5th course!
Such a good meal. the room was not the best, and got much too hot as the evening went on, but I would certainly recommend this place. Wonderful.
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