Sign-ups for 2011 adding up daily

News No Responses »
Feb 042011

Nearly 200 members have signed up for the 2011 Wine Clubs calender.  With exciting events planned, and the first tasting of the year already behind us, the CVO team are ready to rock ‘n roll! 

The year kicked off on a high note with an intimate tasting at Beaumont wines near Botriver, passionately presented by winemaker and family member, Sebastian Beaumont. The wines were, as expected, interesting, elegant and loved by the group.  (A little bit disappointing that they didn’t buy more, but some nights just don’t do so well sales-wise!  Who knows why?) Next stop for this club is Wildekrans just around the corner. But more about that later.

Our face book group is growing with pics and fans, and the website is so nearly ready to handle all your rsvp’s!  Next month all members will definitely be able to rsvp directly onto the site, which will free Bjorn up a lot for the fun bit of the wine club job ie setting up new tastings  (This naturally involves trips to wineries, lots of preview tastings etc. etc!)

Watch this space for more news on the March tastings.

Posted by cobievanoort at 2:35 pm

Weekend in Swellendam gives members an overview of a new area!

News No Responses »
May 142010

Nearly 20 members joined us for a weekend away in gorgeously rural Swellendam. The venue gave us the opportunity to visit some unusual areas like Joubert-Tradouw winery on the R62 and some of the lesser know, but very value-for-money options like Ashton Cellar and Montagu Cellar. A real treat was our tasting at Bushmanspad and everyone loved the new tasting room at Excelsior. We were spoiled rotten at our guest houses with Augusta de Mist coming out tops!

Click on Gallery to see some of the pics from Swellendam.

Posted by JohanNieuwenhuys at 11:29 am

McGregor Weekend a huge success!

News No Responses »
Apr 062010

Nearly 40 wine lovers descended on the small, quaint town of McGregor from 14-16 May for a weekend of wine tasting, gourmet food and just “kuiering”!. After a cosy evening tasting by two garagiste winemakers and wonderful food prepared by the team from McGregor Country Cottages, the group was off for an early night in preparation for the next day’s arduous tastings. Three wineries were visited on Saturday morning with Kings River, Tanagra and McGregor Cellar all showing off their wares. After relaxing for the afternoon and a great win by the Stormers, all arrived at Lord’s guest house for which was undoubtedly the highlight of the weekend! The tasting of Lord’s Wines and those of Kranskop, professionally presented by winemaker Newald Fourie, was a huge hit with stock selling out on the night.

Sunday morning dawned clear and sunny and after a substantial breakfast, it was time to make our leisurely way back to Cape Town.

The next weekend-away is planned in September for the Elgin region.

Click on Gallery to see some of the pics from McGregor.

Posted by JohanNieuwenhuys at 11:35 am

Tasting New Zealand Wine with a South African Angle

News No Responses »
Mar 172010
Sandihurst2

Making wine in the country of the Silver Fern is a challenge that makes life very interesting for Hennie Bosman, a local businessman turned winery owner in New Zealand, after emigrating with his family in 2004.

Hennie is visiting South Africa this week and 3 of his Sandihurst wines will be tasted with comparative South African examples in a special event arranged by Wine Clubs SA on Friday, 26 March from 18h30.

Hennie will share his insights about winemaking in South Africa versus that of New Zealand during the event.

Obvious climactic differences and an adventurous approach have led to interesting experiments at Sandihurst, like covering the vineyard with broken glass to enable more light and warmth onto the grapes. This project was undertaken with the Christchurch University a few years ago and the first wines released after this project was started form part of the tasting.

Limited seats are still available at TheOnly1 Restaurant on the Bottelary Road where Hennie will show his Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris and Riesling.

Paul Cluver (Pinot Noir & Riesling), De Grendel (Pinot Noir & Pinot Gris), Villiera (Riesling) and Anthonij Rupert Wines (Pinot Gris) will be represented with their wines by their respective wine-makers and cellar masters, ie. Andries Burger, Charles Hopkins, Jeff Grier and Neil Patterson.

Tickets are available at R200 per person, which includes dinner consisting of canapés, a main course of five spice scented pork belly with an apple and thyme stuffing set on roasted garlic and herb pureed potato, sautéed seasonal vegetables with a bourbon jus, followed by petit dark chocolate macadamia nut springroll served with coffee.

Contact Björn van Oort at bjorn@wineclubssa.co.za or 084-5111-806 for more info or to book your seats.

Posted by JohanNieuwenhuys at 10:43 am
© 2011 Wine Clubs South Africa Suffusion theme by Sayontan Sinha