Our first stop was just down the Mountain from Elgin, at a place called Bot River, which is perhaps even a bit more delightfully provincial than Elgin. A farmer's town through and through, it is most known for it's quirky wine barrel festival which consists of wine makers and wine drinkers alike racing barrels down the main street of the podunk town. The wine maker at Luddite, Neil, is a rather large man. He came in 13th in the barrel race with his aptly named "Luddite Barrel Boys" team.
It was about 100 degrees when we pulled up to the farm and began looking for the shaded coolness of the tasting room. As we walked onto the verandah, we saw Neil, the wine maker, sitting around the table with four others pouring freely from an open bottle on the table. Unsure of if we had happened upon an early morning happy hour among friends, we contritely approached. With a big slap on the back and a broad grin, he welcomed us to the table and told us there was only one wine, the shiraz on the table, but that we should go ahead and pour ourselves whatever we wanted. Luddite really contains the best of Bot River-- a no-fluff, casual approach and one of the best Shirazs I have ever tasted.
It had been the 2005 Shiraz that was sitting opened on the table, and I really don't have enough good things to say about it. One of my favorite Shirazs I have ever had, it is subtle and deep and had an almost cinnamon/clove to it-- which is just to say that, like it's owners, it had it's own understated funk and swagger.
Two other great things about Luddite, (which I'm clearly enamored with,) is that Neil's wife cures her own sausage and prosciutto and that they designed and decorated their own tasting room. As unique as the wine, the tasting room had a floor made of barrel heads and a chair made out of the front of a car. The barrel top floor had been hand done and imbetween each wood round someone had hand painted the floor black. The overall effect was a modern wine retro that the "car seat" in the corner only augmented.
Our next stop was a far cry from Luddite, both in terms of individual charm and vino quality, but it was an oddity to the valley in a completely different way. Gabrielskloof was built over the past couple of years and opened it's door only in October of 2009. Brand new, it gives off the feeling of newly manufactured grandure in a town that is anything but uppity or grand. More like a Stellenbosch property than an Overberg property, the construction is flawless, the scale massive and the charm mostly lacking. There isn't the rustic personal touch, you don't walk into a tasting room set up like the owners own living room, but it does execute the commercial perfectly. Not too much to say about their wines, I wasn't too fond of their Sauvignon Blanc or Rosé, but their Red blend was a good every day wine. Like the building, the wines were all fairly "big," they may do well in competitions but they don't have the subtle flourish of your Luddite or, ahem, Highlands Road :)
Still, the food there was great-- we had the meat and cheese platter-- and I can't emphasize enough that this large restaurant is a truly unique fixture in the Overberg. Like a bit of Disneyland in the hill country, it has a beautiful dining room, perfect inner landscaping, and a fantastically diverse menu. Every establishment has it's place, and Gabrielskloof brings the big swagger into the valley. Oh, and the winery came in 1st, 3rd and 4th at the Bot River barrel challenge under the different auspices of Gabriel's Kloof, Gabriel's Kloof- Barry's team, and Gabriel's Kloof-- Kobie's team, so I guess there are quite a few formidable barrel rollers on premise.
From Gabrielskloof, we headed back over the mountain to its more commercial Elgin cousin--Paul Cluver. However, unlike Gabrielskloof, Paul Cluver was a pioneer to the valley, his wines on the whole are quite well recognized, and it was and remains a completely family owned enterprise. In fact, a couple of days before I got back there was a huge fire in the mountains around Elgin. In an attempt to stemie the growing blaze around the farm, the Cluver clan amassed to fight the fire. Papa Cluver, who is about 75, took the lead, but when a gust of wind came, the fire swiftly changed direction and engulfed him in flame. Luckily, Dr. Cluver knew to stop, drop and roll, but he still sustained burns on about 20% of his body. You have to respect a patriarch who would roll through fire to save his vineyard.
Paul Cluver's wine in general is very well received and well accoladed. His Chardonnay has five stars and just about everything else brandishes four. I have to say, though, that I was more enthused with his tasting room bar and table, which is made from in-tact oak tree trunks, than most of his wine. But in his and my defense, I think that table is one of the coolest I've ever seen, so it would have taken alot to top those trunks. So yeah, his wouldn't be my favorite in the valley but it's still really really good. I particularly like his Gewurztraminer, which is the only one I know of in the valley. His Chardonnay was also good in that really big, oaky way if you like that style; just so happens that I'm not such a Chardonnay fan.
Our next stop was my long neglected and prominent neighbor: Oak Valley. In addition to being a rather large wine estate, they are a cattle ranch, pig farm and mountain biking haven. Large oak trees line the entrance to the property-- hence the name Oak Valley-- and single track paths snake up into the surrounding hills.
Back to the typical Elgin style, their tasting room consisted of a small, well appointed room and a fantastically friendly AND knowledgeable pourer. Ebony the Aussie has long been someone that I "had to meet" in the valley, and it was great to finally put a face to the bubbly reputation.
To begin, the wines were fantastic. Sounds silly that I wouldn't have tasted their full range before, but when you are surrounded by your own labels, you don't often get your hands on your neighbors'. In great Elgin style, their Sauvignon Blanc is both infinitely age-able and delicate. While we were there, Ebony decided to pour the 2004 Sauvignon Blanc, and just like our 2007, the years had done incredible things to the wine. Still maintaining all of the single minded purity of a Sauvignon Blanc, it had now attained a more serious, food style status that would allow it to hold up to any other varietal in a unique brand of "richness." Mmm Mmm. Their Chardonnay was also my favorite that I've had around here. As I said before, not a big Chardonnay fan, but theirs seemed to have a zest and lift without being that ponderously, overwhelmingly buttery/woody Chard. I would gladly gladly drink bottles of this one! Lastly, their Pinot Noir was pretty awesome. While ours is much more in the French style, theirs reminds me more of Washington/Oregon-- though it's a bit deeper in color and a little less, I dunno how to say it, zesty/jammy?? In other words, I honestly liked it better than a lot of the WA ones I've tried-- Go Oak Valley.
While the wine was fantastic, the highlight may have been the large leg of ham that was perched on the back bar in the tasting room. When I brought it up, Ebony seemed a bit daunted-- turns out Aussies aren't schooled in the art of ham haunch carving (too anatomically different from the sheep, I should think.) But, with the giant, giant knife, she did manage, and we got to taste some pretty great cured meat. A bit salty at the moment, the pigs had lived on a diet of acorns, which, though I had never heard of it, is apparently a very high-brow, spanish style of raising pigs. I guess the squirrels now have a cause to fight against.
We finished our day at Almenkerk which is the valley's super fancy, super high tech new winery. Though the level of technology in the cellar is much more Napa-esque, Joris and Natalie are decidedly and thoroughly Eligonian. They are the ones who have a quiz night every month for which the winning prize is... pride, and in their amazing cellar they have a fireman's pole that you are encouraged to swing down, dance on or even shimmy up. They are really cool people who are passionate about their wine.
Though they have over 100 hectares, they have decided to put only 15 into cultivation; for the rest they are going to let the native flor and fauna re-conquer. Their cellar is phenomenally open and well laid out with probably round about 12 tanks. Why, you may ask, would they have so much tank space for only 15 hectares of Sauvignon Blanc, because they are budding wine scholars. All of this tank space allows them to keep blocks of grapes separate and really allows them to play with the juice. If desired, they can use two different tanks for a small, specific section of grapes and test out things like, what is the difference in the profile is we harvest later, expose them to more sunlight etc. Pretty cool and fantastic, catch is you have sufficient funds to have a ton of "unused" tank space, and sufficiency is not easy to gain in this case.
So, here was a not-so-little snippet tour of the Elgin/the Overberg, and does it make your jaw drop when I tell you these are only a small fraction of the amazing places here? These were the only the ones I hadn't seen, just wait for reports of the rest!
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