February 25, 2017
Onrus: Resting, tasting and eating
We had a lazy start to the day before setting off to the Southern Right Winery for a bit of wine tasting.
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Southern Right is the sister estate to Hamilton Russel Vineyards. HRV was established by Tim Hamilton Russel in the late 1970s and was instrumental in putting the Hemel en Aarde Valley on the winemap. He chose the Hemel en Aarde valley because of its high clay content and cool climate (similar to Burgandy) and his intention was to establish it as the main area in South Africa for the Burgandian varietals of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Over the past thirty years his vision has become reality. A visit to this valley was a major motivation behind this trip and we will probably spend a few days here.
Of course not all parts of the valley are suited to those classic grapes and so his son Anthony purchased property lower down the valley to grow Pinotage and Sauvignon Blanc. Southern Right's two wines that we tasted, the 2016 vintages of both varietals, were both restraint but dense with the Pinotage obviously getting a lot of careful (and probably expensive) treatment. Pinotage is a cross between Pinot Noir (from Burgandy) and Cinsaut (from the south of France) developed by Professor Perold in Stellenbosch in the 1920s and initially produced flacid wines with an unpleasant acetone nose. In took wine makers almost a century to work out the best treatment for it and some great wines with firm structure and rich fruit are now produced from the grape. We walked out with a bottle of the 2008 vintage to enjoy with our supper - we'll have to cadge some wine glasses from our fellow campers at Onrus to do it justice.
After that it was back down the hill to Onrus to Hermanuspietersfontein Winery where they have a village market where wine can be tasted and food bought from independant food stalls. A look at their Rose, unwooded Sauvignon Blanc and wooded Sauvignon Blanc has us settling for a Rose and wooded Sauvignon Blanc for our lunch of paella.
Today's ride: 21 km (13 miles)
Total: 230 km (143 miles)
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