The last week of January was a busy time in Stellenbosch. It was harvest season and all around town and in the vineyards people were working tirelessly to pick and press grapes and celebrate this special time.
There are a lot of events around harvest in Stellenbosch. There’s the official harvest festival, which celebrates the thousand of farm workers who work so tirelessly to make Stellenbosch’s wine what it is. There are also a whole host of celebratory harvest feasts, hosted by the wine farms themselves.
I headed out to Stellenbosch with Emma-Jane from Emma Jane Nation for the Longridge Long Table dinner under the stars on Plein street, as part of the harvest season. PS. Do you follow EJN? Her blog is one of my favourites and her Instagram account is so beautiful!
We stayed at the Kleine Zalze Estate in one of their Lodge rooms, which had a fully equipped kitchen, living area that opened onto a balcony with a stunning view of the golf course, two enormous bedrooms with en suite bathrooms and was right next to the pool. There was a bottle of their Chenin in the room when we arrived, so we had to drink it, obviously! It’s one of my favourite whites.
That evening was spent dining under the stars, at a table that seated 200 people! Somehow, the makeshift kitchen managed to serve up four delicious courses, perfectly timed. It was a real feat! Each course was paired with a glass of wine, so getting up at 5:30am the next morning was a meeting in town was absolutely no fun at all.
My swirling head was remedied by the breakfast packs the thoughtful staff at Kleine Zalze packed for us, filled with cheese and ham croissants, freshly baked muffins, yogurt, fruit and juice. Such a nice thing for them to do, since we were missing breakfast.
If we had been staying another night, I would definitely have booked at
Terroir, the farm’s restaurant. It’s one of my favourites and has won a spot on the Eat Out Top 10 four times in a row.
The Lodge at Kleine Zalze is a stunning spot to base yourself for a weekend or even longer. It’s close to many stunning wine farms and you have Terroir right on your doorstep. I’m thinking of planning a weekend away there with another couple in the winter months, when it’s nice and cold and rainy – perfect for red wine and lots of feasting!
