We are truly blessed in the Western
Cape with not one, but several
superb wine-growing regions producing
outstanding international
award-winning wines.
The Durbanville valley contains
12 wine farms which are all easily
accessible and only 20 minutes from
the city centre. If you don’t get lost.
The less said about the first hour
of my journey out there the better,
but armed with directions down a
road that doesn’t exist, replaced by
more directions that are inaccurate,
especially when they include a road
you are familiar with but is now surrounded
by instructions that make
no sense can make one a bit tearful
and frustrated when sitting near the
Melkbos turnoff on the side of the
N7 with trucks hurtling by.
At one point (by then in Edgemead
– don’t ask) I was close to
throwing in the towel and just heading
for one of the farms I have visited
before when an angel in shining
armour called. Word spread quickly
in the winelands and Elzette du
Preez, wine maker at De Grendel
where I was to conclude my tour,
phoned to say she had heard I was
lost.
“You should have come to me
first, and we could already be sitting
on the stoep drinking wine,” she
said – something I wanted more
than anything at that moment. “But
don’t worry. Meet me at the circle,
and I will drive in front of you to
Diemersdal.” Bless her.
And it is very easy to find when
you know where you are going.
Mari van der Merwe is the pretty
young wine maker there – and it’s
interesting to note that of the dozen
farms in the region, half of them
have women wine makers. With the
cool winds blowing off the Atlantic
ocean, Durbanville is famed for its
sauvignon blancs, but also produces
some jolly nice reds, good enough to
earn Nitida’s RJ Botha the Diner’s
Club Young Winemaker of the Year
award, but more about that later.
Diemersdal (www.diemersdal.
co.za, 021 976 3361) is one of the oldest
farms in the country, dating back
to 1698. It’s been in the Louw family
since 1885, and fellow wine maker
Thys is the sixth generation. His
father Tienie is also still very active
on the farm.
Mari took me around and
proudly showed me the vineyards
and modern cellar, and explained
the wine making process. Afterwards
we sampled several of the
farm’s wines – they make six sauvignons
blancs and about as many
reds, including the highly desirable
8 Rows, which is exactly that: a
sauvignon blanc made from just
eight rows of one block.
Next stop was Nitida
(www.nitida.co.za, 021 976 5631) to
have a leisurely lunch with wine
maker RJ Botha. His approach was
slightly different. He had a bottle of
the estate’s flagship wine on ice, a
sauvignon blanc/semillon blend
named Coronata Integration. It was
a 2009 which Botha assured me
would be good for at least another 10
years. Not in my house, but okay.
We lunched at Tables (021 975
9357), the newly opened restaurant
on the farm run by Seugnet Ehlers
and Helena Bester, previous owners
of the The Gallery Café at Rust &
Vrede in Durbanville. It’s a great
spot if you’ve got children because
there are rolling lawns and play
equipment to keep them out your
hair while you’re busy with important
matters of food and wine.
The menu is light and easy, and
seeing we were deep in discussion
with noses in our glasses, the manager
took matters into his own
hands and brought us delicious platters
of charcuterie and cheeses. We
found that we still had space to
share a steak sandwich, which was
necessary if only to taste Botha’s
Calligraphy, the merlot/cabernet
sauvignon/cabernet franc blend
which won him that Diner’s Club
award. Why does it say something
about pinotage in my notes? This is
the problem with doing the
winelands. Things begin to get a bit
hazy.
Still running about half an hour
late on account of the morning’s
unfortunate start, I tore myself
away to visit Karin de Villiers at
Klein Roosboom (www.kleinroosboom.
co.za, 021 975 7417). RJ had
been singing her praises over lunch,
telling me how beautiful she is and
he is right. She also makes a small
range of some lovely wines for
someone who only started doing it a
few years ago. “I always said I was
going to make wine before I die, and
I have,” she smiles.
Last but not least, I got to De
Grendel (www.degrendel.co.za, 021
558 6280). Elzette du Preez has been
one of my favourite people from the
moment we met, and she has a wonderful
attitude towards wine. Not
only does she love making it but she
loves drinking it. She predicted that
by the time I got there I would be in
no mood for cellar tours and structured
tastings so we would just sit on
the stoep looking out across the
mountain, drink some wine and eat
tapas while watching the sunset.
And that is why I like her so much.
It was the perfect ending to the
day. De Grendel does Friday evening
tapas from 5pm and t’s a glorious
location for sundowners away from
the madding crowd.
Other farms in the Durbanville
valley are Altydgedacht, Bloemendal,
D’Aria, Durbanville Hills, Hillcrest,
Meerendal, De Vallei Boutique
Wines and Groot Phesantekraal. For
more information e-mail the Durbanville
Wine Valley Association on
info@durbanvillewine.co.za or visit
www.durbanvillewine.co.za