Drive through the country roads of Robertson all decked with beautiful Calla Lilies to Arendsig Hand Crafted Winery
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We leave Stellenbosch to visit the Robertson Wine Valley which has been affectionately dubbed The Valley of Wine and Roses. The Robertson Wine Valley now has about 50 million vines, producing more than 200,000 tons of wine grapes each year. Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, and Methode Cape Classique are the most popular wines found along this wine route.
We have 2 producers in this wine region and our first visit is to Arendsig Handcrafted Wines. Again harvest is in full swing but Lourens, the owner and winemaker here, manages to break off and come and say hello.
As with everywhere, there have been a few changes here. In September the weather in the Cape was very wet. In fact, the rains were the heaviest recorded for 100 years. To make their tasting area more weatherproof, a new room was created on the open stoep. It has made a great sitting area and the winery uses it now to host tasting and dinner evenings.
Changes noted! We get down to the important business of tasting wine!
Today we are not looking to stock any new varieties from here, to sample the vintages and decide on exactly which wines we will add to our shipment. The tasting progressed from tasting new vintages to exploring the changes that happen in the bottle once a wine has been opened for a couple of days.
On a wine farm with a tasting room, you can find that you are opening many bottles to sample, and not all are finished in one sitting - so it is important to keep the wine at its best to use when next required.
We tried a couple of examples of this and the wine which had been opened 2 days earlier was still drinking well but perhaps not at its best.
A great visit here as always - we were made very welcome and our order is placed so soon our stock room will be full again!
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Great wines and really good value. Grapes are all handpicked so no extra 'protein' that you get with the mechanical pickers (as Marius told us)! Also one of the few places that still wax seal the bottles.