Thursday, December 03, 2015

Elgin Wine Valley Christmas Tweetup

The Elgin Winemakers Guild decided to reward all the hard work by the Tweeters this year with a last tasting for 2015 and Christmas lunch party in Elgin at South Hill. Transport was arranged for many of us from town and a great day was had by all

The first pick up was for Atlantic coast people and was at the Mouille Point lighthouse, where you can park free all day. We then picked up more people at The River Club and in Somerset West
Sadly, road works on the N2 made for heavy traffic for a while, but we made it in time
The first white wines we tasted were Iona 2015 Sauvignon Blanc (our favourite), Elgin Ridge 2014 Sauvignon Blanc and South Hill 2015 Sauvignon Blanc. Two superb white blends of Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon: Highlands Road 2012 Sine Cera and Oak Valley 2011 Mountain Reserve, made by the late Pieter Visser
Everyone getting their phones, tablets and computers tuned into the Internet. We had some problems getting connected, but not overwhelming as we all appeared to have 3G connectivity
The next flight we tasted was Chardonnays: Paul Cluver 2014 (the wine that wowed Lynne the last time she tasted it), the excellent Hannay 2014 made by Richard Kershaw, Winters Drift 2014 and Almenkerk 2012
Then we were on to the reds
Dead soldiers
Karen Glanfield Pawley taking us through the wines
The four really great reds tasted were this marvellous merlot from Shannon - Mount Bullet 2012 made by Gordon Newton Johnson - 2012 Pinot Noir from Elgin Vintners, Richard Kershaw’s 2013 Syrah and Thelema Sutherland 2011 Syrah
Owner of South Hill, Kevin King
Group pose! A very joyous day
Girls having fun
Back inside for lunch
There was a lovely selection of other Elgin wines to drink with lunch
Sandy King supervising the lunch service
Our starter was a cup of good pea soup - the perfect foil for a good sauvignon blanc
Then a fresh Panzanella salad
Gammon and roast pork with a mustard sauce and lots of vegetables was the main course
A very good vanilla panna cotta with strawberries nicely topped off a great meal
Natalie Opstaele of Almenkerk with Karen Glanfield Pawley
Kevin King with South Hill winemaker Sean Skibbe
Kevin with his very friendly pooch. Thank you Elgin. And, yes, we did trend No.1 on Twitter
© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2015

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