Today we went to Paul Cluver Wine Estate for a wine tasting and breakfast. We started off with breakfast at Fresh and I highly recommend eating here!! I had the eggs benedict and it is by far the best I have had in South Africa!! The lady who owns the place is so friendly and her food is great!! The decor is in keeping with the farm, she has her own vegetable garden on the premises and the menu is on the blackboard which changes with what is in season in her vegetable garden. She has kept this place simple yet stunning!! It was a very memorable experience. Be sure to make a booking if you want to eat here, as she is often booked out.
We went to the tasting room after lunch to try the wine. Sadly they don't allow you to try all the wine and if you are a couple and want to try diferent wine, you can't. I even offered to pay to be able to try all the wine, and that didn't work either. There were no other guests in the tasting room at the time, so I thought these rules were a bit strict.
The decision on what to try was very hard for me as I didn't want to miss out on trying any of them. Unfortunately the Gerwerztraminer and the dessert wine were the two that I had to cut out from my selection. We did try the Sauvignon Blanc 2010 at R70 a bottle. We both loved this wine, it was rounded and had great flavour. The Estate Riesling 2010 at R75 a bottle was dry and crisp. My boyfriend liked this one. The Close Encounter Riesling 2011 at R75 a bottle was sweet and had lovely flavour. I liked this one. The Chardonnay 2010 at R120 a bottle was rounded, and had an apricot/honey taste. The Pinot Noir 2009 was R120 a bottle, I found this a little bitter, and felt it lacked flavour, but I imagine it would go nicely with red meat.
Usually you are only allowed to try four wines, but the lady was nice enough to let us try one extra. A tasting is free at this winery.
If you come to this winery for a tasting be sure to eat at Fresh also. If you come to this winery to eat at Fresh, be sure to do a tasting of the wine also!!
Thoroughly enjoyed a bottle of the Paul Cluver Riesling 2010 tonight at home with my boyfriend. It completely fit my mood.
ReplyDeleteChrissy - just found your blog! It is fantastic. I will be in the Western Cape in November for my 4th trip and most of my 3 weeks will involve visiting wine estates and wine tasting. So thanks I have picked up some great tips for new wineries to visit! I would just like to echo your review on Paul Cluver. I visited here a couple of years ago when in Elgin (one of my favourite regions) but had a very disappointing tasting here and I was so looking forward to it. The lady knew nothing about the wines and like you was very inflexible about the number of wines we could taste. I really like their Riesling and Gerwurtztramminer though
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