We opted to try some wines and check out the stalls before finding something to eat, this turned out to be a bad move. However we came there to taste some wines so it was off to the stalls. There were certainly a good selection of wine makers on hand, and no lack of wines to taste, but to be very honest that was pretty much all there was. It wasnt long before we had tasted more then enough wine and we found ourselves looking for some form of entertainment, there was a "stage" but with no band and background music playing it didnt exactly draw us in. We did enjoy watching some locals doing something that resembled line dancing.
Being a born shopper, I was looking for a clothing stand or two, but alas these were not to be found, at one stage I thought I had found something but was terribly disappointed to discover what I was actually heading for were aprons.We didn't go on the boat ride, the fact that it was an additional charge was a bridge too far for me. Oh yes I also so some great hat ideas, clearly this guy thought he would provide some entertainment. LoL nice one "box head dude"
There was also a distinct lack of food tasting going on, the biltong stand didn't offer any samples before you purchased and I couldn't find very much in the way of cheese and olives ( a few stands that's it !) I was however very impressed with the Strictly Coffee stand where we enjoyed an exceptional ice coffee and great service.
The children's entertainment amounted to two ponies and a very small trampoline. It is very naive to think that people attending wine festivals don't have kids, maybe a kids corner with "paid" child minders would of been a good idea?
Back to the food. We had our eye on some lovely looking lamb burgers, but this was clearly not meant to be as by the time we went to get some they were sold out, (this was only 4pm) The hunt was on for something to eat, sold out was the order of the day. With the help of some line hopping from a desperate hungry hubby we managed to bag the last of some delicious lamb curry.
The shadows started to lengthen and we decided there wasn't much more the festival could offer us. I felt rather sad and more then a little disappointed. I believe the organizers would do well to take note of the "Oom die Berg" wine festival held in Paarl which at less the half the price offered visitors so much more in the way of entertainment, variety and value for money. Would I go back next year? No. Sorry but we are more the "fun day" type of visitors who enjoy being entertained on our day out "grape stomping" and the like is more our thing.
At least I got to see the beautiful part of the Cape called Robertson - and bonus, discovered the Strictly Coffee online coffee club to keep my coffee addiction fueled.
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Dear Sue
ReplyDeleteThank you very much for emailing me the link to your blog and giving us the opportunity to comment. We at the Robertson Wine Valley appreciate every feedback we receive as this gives us something to work with when we start working on our next project and obviously there is always room for improvement.
I did however feel that I wanted to explain why certain things are the way they are on which you commented above.
Yes, the festival costs R135pp for the Saturday. The reason for this is threefold. Firstly, it is an expensive festival to host, because of all the infrastructure that needs to be rented in (the tents alone for instance are more than R100K), secondly the site is very small as you commented, so we can only host a certain amount of visitors and thirdly, because Saturdays of any wine festival in the Western Cape is always the most popular, we try to entice people to come to the festival on the Friday or the Sunday. It is a pity that you didn’t come on the Friday or Sunday, as you most certainly wouldn’t have had to get in line to get a seat with a view.
We have found that the festival has three very distinct groups visiting – on the Friday, your more serious wine taster/buyer that is sometimes also a bit older, the Saturday, the younger crowd comes, as they see it more in the light of a social event (they come, because everyone they know are coming) and the Sunday when we get much more families and this is also the day on which the locals choose to visit.
Regarding the glasses – of course there are loads of options we could choose from, but we decided on this crystal glass, instead of the normal international taster, as we felt the wines show the best in them and that they are also more comfortable to have a glass of wine with, not only taste.
It is a pity that the music, food and stalls did not meet your expectations. Our experience over the past 6 years with Wine on the River has taught us that music is something VERY specific, so we rather opt for a generic genre with the background music. On Saturday (and I hope you didn’t miss him), Henry Conradie (aka Flem), one of our local winemakers played guitar and sang, as he proved to be very popular over the last 2/3 years and on Sunday we had this brilliant saxophonist to suit the chill vibe of the day. Also one of our cheese stalls’ owners had an accident on Friday and couldn’t attend the rest of the festival – life does tend to give you these little speedbumps now and again, so we try to work with what we have.
As you’ll see, we tend to go for everything that we feel compliments the wine, as this is a wine festival, sponsored by the wineries of the area. We therefore have decided a few years ago not to have any clothing stalls. The aprons you saw however, is one of the fairy tales of our Valley. Nadine Kelly, the designer of these started out with only a handful of her designer aprons at the local farmers’ market on Saturday mornings. She has now grown to such an extent that her aprons are available in Cape Town and as far as JHB. She has also recently for the first time exhibit at the Homemakers’ Expo and received magnificent reviews.
As for the kiddies – you must have missed the sand pit (which was VERY popular with the little ones – please see the pics on our FB page), the jungle gym, slide, swings, etc. We also this year for the first time had giant snakes and ladders that everyone loved. Unfortunately, because of strict regulations, we are not in a position to look after kids for a fee on a festival site because of all the liability involved, although we would’ve loved to be able to do so.
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How sorry I am that you couldn’t go for the boat cruise. It really is a brilliant experience to see the valley from that perspective and it is also one of the projects on site where the Hospice receives all proceeds, together with their runner service for the wineries, and selling ice and non-alcoholic drinks on the site.
ReplyDeletePlease also remember that we have 4 festivals in the Robertson Wine Valley in total, each of which we target a different market: Hands-on Harvest in February - pick and stomp your own grapes to your heart's content during harvest season, Wacky Wine Weekend - a decentralised festival which can be compared to Paarl's "Oom die Berg"/Ommiberg festival where you buy a 4-day pass for R80, the Robertson Slow - focused on the slow lifestyle and Wine on the River which you experienced. Therefore, if you did not enjoy Wine on the River, there are always three other festivals to still try!
I'm pleased that you got to taste the brilliant curry, discovered Strictly Coffee, enjoyed the company of the winemakers and really do hope that you will come back next year for the lamb burgers!
With regards
Elizma Spangenberg
Manager: Robertson Wine Valley
Hi Elizma, good to hear from you, we will defiantly take your suggestions to heart, sounds like the Wacky Wine Weekend is perfect for us, see you soon
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