The Swartland long had the same public relations problem. It was tasting their The Hedgehog Colombard the other day at a dinner there that got me asking Orange River Cellars winemaker Ferdinand Laubscher (Ferdi, technically the winemaker but who answers to the title of Laboratory & Research Manager) how they deal with misplaced popular perceptions. The strange flour gives the brownies a mysterious but beguiling flavour. Innovation: Red grape skin flour and dark chocolate brownies, with Ferdi Laubscher in the background and the Orange River Cellars red muscadel. It’s amazing how much can change in 23 years. Where there was mostly veld, veld and more veld then, there are endless vineyards now. Plotting our return, we determined to route back another way, from Springbok via Pofadder (it exists, as do Putsonderwater and Tweebuffelsmeteenskootmorsdoodgeskietfontein) and revisit the winelands region where Orange River Cellars reign vinously supreme. Three years ago we went on a long road trip via Graaff-Reinet, Murraysburg and Calvinia through Namaqualand and on to my old diamond town of Oranjemund. Like the flower that blooms in the desert, it is to be admired more than the vines pampered by rich soil and abundant rain in the verdant places where vineyards are expected to grow. The terrain draws the mind to that magnificently named Sauvignon Blanc from the Breede River, far from here: Life From Stone. The Green Kalahari where gemsbok roam and quiver trees stand to attention as signposts to your destination. Keimoes, Kakamas, Upington and Kanoneiland.
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