A short drive north of our lodging in Stellenbosch is the Paarl wine region, the 2nd largest in South Africa. We’re touring Paarl today.
It’s another early pickup by Taryn. Our first stop is at Lazenou Vineyards, a small, 5 hectare organic winery run by Xavier Bavoud. Xavier was originally from the French speaking part of Switzerland and he and his family bought the farm in 2020 just as Covid hit. We spent several hours with Xavier as he explained his commitment to organic farming and his passion for wine making. He also provided some yummy snacks to go with his wines. We could have spent the day there it was so enjoyable. Xavier had a very curious rooster named Herbert that kept trying to join us in the tasting room. Hilarious!
Next up is the ‘Druk my Niet’ Wine Farm. This 24-hectare wine estate was once a part of a much bigger farm acquired in 1692 by the French Huguenot, Francois du Toit. He was the first to discover the passage through the treacherous Drakenstein Mountains, which is why the passage is known today as Du Toitskloof Pass. Several generations later, his son-in-law inherited this piece of the estate as a dowry. So dissatisfied was he at its diminutive size, wedged between two much bigger parts of land, that he dubbed it ‘Druk-My-Niet’, meaning ‘don’t squeeze me’. The gentleman who guided our tasting and tour of the cellar was quite entertaining. Very intense, WILD hair. Can’t believe we didn’t get a photo!
Our lunch stop is at the Brookdale Estate. Great food and wines in a spectacular setting with a backdrop of the Klein Drakenstein mountains. On the grounds are a collection of metallic animal statues.
Finally, we visited ‘Olsen Private Vineyards’. Olsen also sits in the valley below the Klein Drakenstein Mountains. Owned by Dr. Greg Olsen, an American entrepreneur who in 2005 became the 3rd private individual to spend time on the Internation Space Station. Our tasting is with winemaker Armand, a very informal and entertaining guy. It is more like spending time with your friend on the deck than a structured wine tasting.
This part of the valley had some wildfires go through earlier in the year. From the deck you can see the path of the fire up the mountain. They were lucky they did not have any extensive damage, but others were not so fortunate. They currently have 11 hectares under vine, concentrating on Pinotage, Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot and with whites Chardonnay and Chenin Blanc.
We decided to spend the evening working on the blog and snacked on our leftovers from the ‘Fat Butcher’ along with wine (of course).