MICHAEL GREEN’S WINE NOTES #240

Robertson’s Wacky Wine Weekend and other news!

Some wine snobs used to look down their noses at wines from the Robertson valley, but those days are, I think, long past. The number of cellars in the valley has increased from fewer than 25 to more than 50 over the past 15 years, and the list includes some very distinguished names producing a wide range of white and red wines.

The town of Robertson, about 150 km from Cape Town, is largely Afrikaans-speaking. Its non-Afrikaans name comes from Dr William Robertson, a Scottish Dutch Reformed Church missionary who settled in this area nearly 200 years ago. In recent times the Robertson valley has developed a distinctly go-ahead image, symbolised by its annual Wacky Wine Weekend. This year’s festival will be the seventh and it will take place from June 3 to 6.

The wacky weekend will include meet-the-winemaker tastings, brandy tours and tastings, vineyard tractor trips, river cruises, sunset game drives, cheese and olive tastings, a farmers’ market, a fireworks display, and a mountain bike race. Gastronomic offerings will include oysters, perlemoen, sushi, picnics, Spanish cuisine and potjiekos, and there will be a good range of children’s activities.

Robertson’s 50-plus wineries are participating in the festival, and safe local transportation will be provided by a bus and designated driver programme.

If you are in the Western Cape at the time, this sounds a good way of spending a winter weekend. A passport for the whole weekend costs R70 and includes a tasting glass, wine samples, a bottle of mineral water and a bag with other items. More information from Robertson Wine Valley on 023 626 3167.

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I am often asked by friends to recommend wines for lunches or dinners. It is a task that is both easy and difficult. The possibilities are endless, but personal tastes vary greatly.

Here’s some information that may be helpful. Recently I hosted a lunch at the Spice restaurant in Morningside, Durban, a venue which my wife and I have visited many times over the years and where we have invariably had excellent food and service.

I chose two wines that I had not tried before: Klein Constantia KC cabernet/merlot (which I took to the restaurant, paying corkage) and De Grendel sauvignon blanc (on the restaurant’s wine list). The red wine from Klein Constantia was full-bodied with strong berry flavours.

The white wine was from a place I knew long ago when I was a young reporter in Cape Town, De Grendel, near Durbanville, the home of Sir de Villiers Graaff, for many years leader of the opposition in the South African Parliament. It is now owned by his son, Sir David Graaff, who has developed the property as a wine estate, the first wines being bottled in 2004.

The De Grendel sauvignon blanc turned out to be first-rate, dry but fruity, with hints of guava, lemon, fig and green pepper on the palate and in the bouquet.

Both wines were much enjoyed by my guests. They were not cheap, but they were not ridiculously extravagant. You don’t have to pay a fortune to drink well.

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A booklet that has come my way from England says: “There are about 75 grapes in a cluster, and one grape cluster will make approximately one glass of wine. It will take four clusters of grapes to make one bottle of wine”. Nice-sized wine glasses, four to a bottle. – Michael Green