Vondeling - second visit

Today we were on our way to Riebeek Kasteel for a weekend away. On our way there we drove past Vondeling and I decided to stop for a tasting as it had been a few years since I last tasted their wine and my boyfriend had not been there before and I wanted to show him the place.

To see my notes from my first visit please go to http://westerncapewineries.blogspot.com/2013/04/vondeling.html

The place was quite busy. I found out that they had recently done a Groupon special where you can have lunch and wine tasting for a special price. The meal looked scrumptious and I was envious of all these Groupon customers!

On arrival the staff were very welcoming and polite. We were lead to the bar/counter to do the wine tasting and then Marian came to conduct the tasting with us. 

The tasting room here is humble and lovely. As it was during the winter months the fire place was going and everyone was happy to be inside.

The church is now finished making the venue even more ideal for a wedding, not to mention the views. There is a lovely outdoor area at the tasting room with views over the vineyards with the mountains in the not far distance.

Vondeling has a lovely range of wines and they are fairly priced. I can highly recommend coming out to Vondeling for a tasting. I am sure you will enjoy the charm, warmth and kind hospitality that the staff show here.

Tasting notes:
Vondeling Rose 2015 - 100% Merlot Rose. Pronounced nose, nice viscosity, red berries on the palate. Great fruit flavour with some spice. Very nice. R49.50 a bottle.

Vondeling Petit Blanc 2014 - 60% Chenin Blanc, 28% Chardonnay, 12% Viognier. Pretty floral character on the nose. Fresh flavours on the palate. It is fruity, green fruit to be more specific, with some lime that lingers on the finish. I liked this wine. R49.50 a bottle

Vondeling Sauvignon Blanc 2015. Sweet tropical fruit aromas including guava and gooseberry. It has intense flavour and reminds me of a NZ Sauvignon blanc. A lovely wine! R65 a bottle.

These first three wines turned out to be my favourite from the range. They are great value for money; you can't go wrong with these wines!

Vondeling Chardonnay 2013 - buttery, honey, butterscotch, heavy.
Vondeling Chardonnay 2014 - light aromatics, fresh, lighter in style to the 2013, pleasant.

Vondeling Barbera 2013 (flagship white) - 60% Chenin Blanc, 15% Grenache Blanc, 15% Viognier and 10% Chardonnay. Babiana is named after a flower on their property which is endemic to the area. When you visit this winery, you can see a photo of this flower on the wall. This wine has good body, has a slight waxy texture/mouth feel. Stone fruit flavour. This is a good wine. R135 a bottle.

Vondeling Petit Rouge 2014 - 85% Merlot and 15% Cabernet Sauvignon. Medium intensity on the nose, black fruit flavours, good tannin structure, liquorice. Good depth in flavour. R49.50 a bottle.

Vondeling Baldrick Shiraz 2013 - 93% Shiraz, 6% Mourvedre and 1% Viognier. I wasn't a fan of the nose on this wine, it had a slight earthy/manure smell. It had good depth in colour, was smooth and had good concentration in flavour. More along the lines of dark fruit flavours. Tannins are present. R70 a bottle.

Vondeling Erica Shiraz 2011 - 86% Shiraz, 10% Grenache Noir, 3.6% Mourvedre and 0.4% Viognier. This had a beautiful (and pretty) nose, with some sweet notes of vanilla. It was spicy, a little dry (tannins) but not harsh or undrinkable. Violets and floral tones. R139 a bottle.

Vondeling Cabernet Sauvignon 2012 - lovely red fruit aromatics, with some slightly sweet spice and cigar hints on the nose. Lovely ripe fruit flavour, dry, and a little bit of spice. R102 a bottle.

After reading my previous post on this wine estate, I feel this one doesn't do it enough justice, in regards to the charm and warmth of this place. Please do read my post from the first visit as I hope it will encourage you to make the journey out to this estate.

Gin Tasting

Today I joined two others in a Gin tasting to see how the gins I have from overseas compare to what we can get locally here in South Africa. I have looked online for retail prices and then exchanged them in to Rand at today's exchange rate. I thought it would be good to see how they differ in regards to price.

South Gin (NZ) NZ$45.90 = R375
 - Had a candy character on initial taste and heaps of liquorice on the finish. Lingered for a long time!

Hendriks (Scotland) NZ$59.95 = R500
 - What really showed on this in comparison to the others is the texture. It was much thicker in consistency than the others. More floral on the nose. Candy, cucumber and botanicals on taste.

Uncle Vals (USA) US$45 = R560
- Cucumber on the nose. Citrus/marmalade on taste.
Woodstock (local) R180
- Prominent butterscotch on the nose. Good viscosity but not as much as Hendriks.

The Botanist (Scotland) NZ$75 = R630
 - not offensive on the nose or palate. Definitely the best sipping gin.

Tanqueray No. 10 (USA) NZ$73 = R630
 - pleasant nose, good viscosity, candy and citrus flavours.

Inveroche classic (local) R350
 - Citrus on the nose, nice viscosity, spearmint, alcohol wasn't offensive.

Bombay (England) NZ$48 = R400
 - like a slap in the face after the other gins. Not offensive on the nose however.
Inveroche Amber (local) R350
 - Cola on the nose.

This was a fun exercise! It was nice to be tasting something other than wine and to sit down and really understand the characteristics of gin. It seems the Uncle Vals which we only had a shot left of, was the favourite. Sadly I can't get more of that unless I go back to the US or someone brings me a bottle. The Woodstock was a stand out gin. The Botanist showed as the best sipping wine, the South Gin was a favourite in flavour, and the Hendriks won on viscosity. The Inveroche showed well against all these gins and made us proud to have a high quality local gin on the market. The Bombay was very much out of place!

I would love to get some more gins and do this again in a year's time. I wonder what wonderful gins we can find by then. It might be quicker, easier and cheaper to hit Mother's Ruin in Cape Town!?

Phizante Kraal

Well this was a surprise find on my doorstep! A friend of mine told me about a lovely breakfast she had at this winery (Phizantekraal) not far from where we live. Then one day, my boyfriend surprised me with a trip to Phizantekraal for breakfast.

This is not even 5 minutes drive from where we live and we have now dined here twice since finding out about it. The main building where the restaurant is, was built in the 1700's. They have built an extension for the tasting room. The place looks modern, smart and yet quaint and charming. I love the place.

My battery on my camera died when I wanted to take a photo of the building, so I have taken this photo from the Phizantekraal website. You can see the front part (the brick part) is the new extension to the original building  with the thatch roof in the back.

Here is a photo I took inside the restaurant. You can see they have a high ceiling and looks really nice with all the wooden columns: 

We had a very nice breakfast. The menu is small but there is something for everyone whether you want the good old bacon and eggs, something sweet like french toast or something warm and wintery like porridge. Our meals were nice and the service was fine, though they did take a while to bring the bill; I had to ask a few times for it.

There was a big group celebrating a Grandma's birthday on the day we dined here. I have to say this restaurant is ideal for couples, families, baby showers, birthday celebrations and more. It really does cater for everyone and the setting is so humble, low key and relaxed.

After breakfast we went through to the tasting room to try the wines. They have a wall of jars filled with different aromas for characters of wine. They have a big range of aromas like tobacco, aniceed, wet rocks, almonds plus many more. We spent a good amount of time smelling all the jars, it was a lot of fun.

This picture is from the Phizantekraal website. As you can see, the tasting room is very modern and has lovely big windows for you to enjoy the view. Like the day we visited the weather it was a bit dismal and it looks like it was the day this photo was taken too. I can imagine on a clear day the views must be very nice. Even when the weather wasn't great, the views were also lovely.

Now, getting to the wines, I was impressed. Apparently they have been selling off their grapes for a long time and still sell off a good portion, however they now make wine from their vines also. Quantities of wine production are low and the quality of the wine is very good, especially for the price.

Sauvignon Blanc 2014 (R58 a bottle): Medium to pronounced nose, more fruity in style. Light in body, medium - high acidity, green fruit - like granny smith applies - on the palate. Soft, creamy, and a little floral.

Chenin Blanc unwooded 2014 (R48 a bottle) had medium intensity on the nose, smelled like smelly cheese (strange I know). It was fruity on the palate with hints of peach, apricot, pineapple and pear. There was also a little bit of floral and some green characters to the wine like bell pepper and asparagus. It had medium acidity, medium body, and a good mouth feel. It was a pleasant wine. I had a glass of this wine when we dined here a week later. It went very nice with the curry dishes we had.

Chenin Blanc wooded (R85 a bottle) had a medium lemon colour, medium intensity on the nose. It had nice aromatics. On the palate I picked up fruity flavours including some hints of melon. This wine was soft, round mouthed, creamy, had medium body, medium - high acidity. It had lovely oak character with hints of nutmeg and cinnamon. The oak is subtle. This wine had flavours of apple, raisin, saltanas, nutmeg and custard. Reminded me of a bread and butter pudding. This wine also had some floral character to it. This wine was nice.

Cabernet Sauvignon 2013 was a medium ruby colour, had medium intensity on the nose and medium body. There were some soft wooden spices coming through on the nose and I picked up plums and some sweet characters on the nose also.It was soft, had lovely red fruit with some raspberry flavours and some spice on the palate. There was aniceed/liquorice, followed by a plastic feeling on the finish. Soft tannins, ready to drink now. This wine impressed me more than the reds and was nice. We had a bottle of this with our dinner on the next occassion we visited this winery. It is very good value for money and very pleasant with food.

Shiraz 2013 had a dark ruby colour. It had intense aromas with dark fruit character. This wine was soft, had hints of christmas fruit cake and a little bit of citrus (orange specifically). It had medium body, soft tannins, was rich and had good length. Again I was impressed with this wine. We had a bottle of this at the three course dinner also, again it went down well with our food. Our friends were really impressed by the wine and the price!

I am more of a white wine drinker, but the reds stood out for me more than the white wines. Which did surprise me considering Durbanville has become well known for their white wines. All of the wines are nice and very good value for money.

The tasting room manager did a good job of presenting the tasting. It was clear that she had been with the company for a while and knew the wines well. It was an informative tasting and she was very pleasant. The tasting costs R20.

Once a month they open their doors for dinner. It is a set three course dinner and themed. We attended the one in June which was a Middle Eastern Winter Flair for only R180 pp. The food was very nice, presentation was good and the timing of the dishes coming out was done nicely.

This is a photo of the starter we had. Aloo Tikka with Chutney & Pickled Radish. The food as you can see was nicely presented and creative also. This was a delicious meal! 

For our main the following dishes were placed in the middle of the table and everyone could help themselves, there was plenty to go around, the portions were generous.
Lamb & Sweet Potato Curry with Cashew Butter Paneer, Turkish Apricots, Rice & Lentil Pilaf, Buttered Naan.

For dessert we had Honey Orange Cake with Pistachio Cream. They served this with Masala Chai Tea which was delicious!

A bonus to dining here is that you get the wine at cellar door price!! The three course dinner was really good value for money and a lovely evening to catch up with friends. It is great to have another dining option in the Northern Suburbs.

If you are out this way, be sure to stop by. It really is a lovely place for a wine tasting, breakfast, lunch and dinner (the latter is by appointment only and you need to find out what date they are holding them)!