De Grendel

Today I met with some friends at De Grendel for a wine tasting. I was pleasantly surprised to see such beautiful grounds, a modern tasting room, and fantastic views!! I love that they have an amazing view of table mountain, the sea and their vineyards all in one view.

The wine tasting room is modern, welcoming and can hold many people. I love that they have an outdoor seating area where you can do a tasting.

We ended up sitting outside with a cheese platter and did a full wine tasting. Be sure to allow a good 1.5-2 hours to enjoy a full wine tasting and cheese platter at this winery.

 
The service here was really good. The guy who served us really knew his wine and the winery. He told  us the history of the winery and he had great knowledge of every wine we tried. It was a fantastic wine tasting.

To do a tasting here costs R20 for a tasting of 3 wines, or R50 to try all 11 wines. I highly recommend trying all wines. If you purchase a bottle of any wine then the wine tasting is waivered. My favourite wines here were the Rose 2011 (50), Koetshuis Sauvignon Blanc 2011 (R85), Merlot 2008 (R85), Viognier 2011 R85) and the Winifred 2009 (R85). The Winifred is a blend of Viognier, Chardonnay and Semillon. All their wines are very nice and well balanced.

For me, this is now my favourite winery in Durbanville. I highly recommend you visit this winery and enjoy the wine and views.

Meerendal

Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day so we decided to go to the Meerendal market. They hold a farmers market once a month, and this was the first one that we had attended. There were quite a few people there and it was a very nice market to go to.

Outside the tasting room is a nice decking where you can enjoy wine, eat some food and soak up the nice views and atmposphere.

There are stalls selling jewellry, clothing, preserves, bread, cured meats etc. What I loved the most about this market is that there were tables set up out the back of the wine tasting room which you could sit at and enjoy a nice bottle of wine, some food and soak up the view.

This is an ideal place to bring your children, as they have horse rides available, a bouncy castle, and there is plenty of space for children to run around.

I did a tasting while here, and really enjoyed it. The wines are really nice here, all of them were very nicely balanced, were smooth, and you could tell that a lot of attention to detail had gone in to their wine. At first it was not an ideal time to do a tasting, but once they had more staff at the tasting section, I was given more attention and had a great tasting. You can try four of the standard wines for R10, but if you want to try the premier wines then you pay R10 per tasting.

I started with the MCC Blanc de Blanc 2007 (R345) this was very nice. It is light, tasty, buttery, and easy drinking. The Sauvignon Blanc 2010 (R69) had a fantastic smell, with very tropical fruit smells. However, what you smell is so different to what you taste. It was smooth, had a cellery, asparagus and slight grassy taste to it. The Sauvignon Blanc Single Vineyard was very yellow in colour, but light, nicely balanced and easy to drink. The 2007 Sauvignon Blanc S/V Bin 242 (R138) is wooded, well balanced, smooth, rounded, and has a very nice lingering aftertaste. The Pinotage Rose (R45) was a favourite of mine. This had very nice flavour, was light and easy drinking. I bought a couple bottles of this wine, had one last night at a party, and have decided I woud like to buy a case, as it was a great wine for at a party/braai. I tried the 2009 Chenin Blanc Natural Sweet (R105) this was very nice, had a lovely taste, was smooth, but compared to other dessert wines I have tried, I did find it was a bit syrupy in comparison.

Overall I think this winery has some fantastic wine, the market is worth a visit, and I am very much looking forward to the next market where I will invite some friends and enjoy some food and a bottle of wine and just soak up the nice relaxing environment. Be sure to put this winery on your list when visiting the Durbanville wineries!!

Quoin Rock

After visiting Delheim and Muratie, my boyfriend and I decided to visit Quoin Rock. I first tried Quoin Rock wines at the Taste event, and loved their Nicobar Sauvignon Blanc, therefore I was very excited to try more of their wine.

The building is very modern and the tasting room is a great size.  The photo below shows just half of the tasting room, there are also several tables and chairs which you can sit at to do a tasting.

The service here is very good, we had a lady called Helanie serve us. She was fantastic. She had great knowledge of the wine, she had a great attitude and passion for the wine.

I tried all the wine available for tasting here. I started with the Cape Agulhas Cap Classique (R125). This wine had interesting flavours, had a slight strawberry taste to it, and was off dry. It was very unique. The Simonsberg Nicobar 2009 (R145) was smooth, silky, romantic, had a nice flavour and aftertaste. I really like this wine!! Cape Agulhas Sauvignon Blanc 2009 (R70) is very grassy, has asparagus taste and smell, is nice, smooth, light and yet it has good body.

The Simonsberg Oculus 2007 (R95) is a blend of 85% Sauvignon Blanc and 15% Viognier. It is buttery, rounded, and definitely has characters of lanolin and honey. This wine has potential, but as it is now, it is not to my liking. The Cape Agulha Chardonnay 2008 (R75) is very nicely balanced. This was a favourite of mine. It has great flavour, a light chardonnay taste to it, it is smooth, relaxed and easy drinking. The Merlot 2009 is slightly dry, and has quite strong flavours. The Simonsberg Syrah 2006 was smooth, slightly dry and had nice fruity flavours.

Other wines I tried include the Simonsberg Centaur2009 (R175), The Mendi 2006 (R175) and the Vine Dried Sauvignon Blanc 2009 (R145). This last wine I thoroughly enjoyed, it is elegant, smooth, has great flavours, and is nice of the palate.

If you want to go outside for a while, you can have a look at this fantastic view out the back of the tasting room. 

I had a very nice wine tasting experience here and would recommend one visits this winery when out this way.