Paarl Ommiberg - Round the Rock

It's been quiet on the Tourist front, too quiet. Since mid February its been all work and no play. Why, I hear you ask? well there's a very good reason for this. Hubby and I have been burning the midnight oil getting as much work as possible out of the way before our small invasion from Joburg starts. First to arrive last week was hubby's best friend and wife to be on an extended break before they jump on a plane to New Zealand.  Next week Wednesday we'll be joined by my best friend and her partner for a short visit to the Crayfish Festival. On the 23rd, another dear friend and partner arrive for an extended visit, and last but most certainly not least my gorgeous 11 year son arrives on the 25th for his school holiday.

It's not much fun for our guests to entertain themselves while we slave away in the office, so we were looking for something nice to do with them this weekend, something uniquely Cape Town, something different. Well imagine my surprise when an email arrived from Laborie with details on the Ommiberg Festival. A quick call to the ever polite staff at Laborie, and I had all the info I needed to plan our day out. I also pre booked us for some Grape stomping and Wine blending competitions at Laborie. A quick plan was made for a "dog sitter" and before you could say "wine tasting" Saturday was here.

 For those who have read some of my previous blogs, you will know I am relatively new to the Cape. I had certainly never heard of the Ommiberg festival. I was very impressed with what I read on the Ommiberg  website, for a mere R60 per head you receive a lovely engraved wine glass, access to 13 fantastic wine farms, free shuttle service between the farms, free tasting of young wine with traditional onion tart at all of them, and a whole heap of  fun events, markets, cellar tours and live entertainment.



We took a slightly more direct route to Paarl and made it to the Laborie car park in just 30 minutes. We registered for the festival as we entered, where we received our arm band and tasting glass and made our way to the first event of the day, the Grape stomping. I think I need to explain at this point that hubby and I are very competitive, we love a challenge.

Fortunately our guests are equally extreme. As we were early we had the opportunity to plan our assault on the course. Frankly the competition didn't stand a chance, by start time we were fired up like race horses. Victory was sweet, as was the 4 bottles of red wine and Laborie caps we received for our efforts. Pumped with adrenaline, and a little grape splattered, we made for the Lazy Day's Market for a quick tour before our next event, Wine blending.

When I originally wrote the piece on the Lazy Day Market, I made a few suggestions, and to my absolute joy I noted all of them had been taken on board. There was now a ATM at the wine tasting room, far more shade, food was covered or had fly repellent candles burning, the range of stalls was fantastic and there was far more kiddy friendly activities. I'm pretty sure the Laborie team would of made these improvements anyway, but delusional or not, I did feel a small sense of achievement. After shopping up a storm, it was on to the lovely cool cellar for the Wine blending competition.

 

Clearly we are better at physical, "no brainier" activities, as despite hubby's best efforts and that of our friends. Kobus the manager of Laborie found our blend's wanting and awarded the spectacular 12LT Bottle of wine to a deserving team of ladies, who really knew their stuff. Well "you cant win em all"  Anyway we thoroughly enjoyed the informative talk and the fun of taking part.



                                                                                                                
It was time to kick back a little, and we headed for the "Kuier" tent, where we were treated to some fantastic music from the very talented Sterling Electric Quartet. Relaxing on puffy pillows we sipped our wine (well not me, as I had volunteered to be designated driver) and nibbled on the droewors and cheese's we bought at the market. Spectacular!






It took a huge effort to drag ourselves away, but we headed out of Laborie "we opted to drive ourselves" to the next farm and decided on Rhebokskloof Wine Estate.

The estate is set back from the road in a beautiful setting, driving up I noticed horses grazing in the fields. There is also a stunning lake with a lovely lawn area. I must say after the smooth organisation and great variety at Laborie, the Rhebokskloof Ommiberg offering was some what of a disappointment.





We hadn't had lunch, only our nibbles and this proved to be a mistake as the only food on sale, "despite the write up advertising food stalls"
was Prego Rolls. The golf chipping competition which hubby and friend liked the sound of, turned out to be somewhat basic, with a small piece of roped off lawn and some empty wine boxes. Not quiet what we had expected! We thought we would try our luck to buy some of the potjiekos made at the potjiekos competition that was advertised, but search as we may, we couldn't find or smell anything! darn. We were also keen to do a helicopter flip, I did notice that in the Ommiberg literature we received at Laborie, the helicopter rides were TBA and on not finding said helicopter, we bid a fond farewell to Rhebokskloof Wine Estate

Next stop was just up the road, the Boland Cellar,

again a beautiful estate on the Drakenstein mountain slopes. Walking up to the farm, we were greeted by some curious local children perched in a tree with huge smiles enjoying all the activity. On entering we were again rather disappointed, all the activity was centered in one small tented area, other the great big screen showing the Proteas game. The grass bale sitting arrangement  was lovely, however, again we were disappointed with what was on offer. There was only very few market stalls, two of which were selling olive oil and even worse for us hungry lot, not much in the way of  food.... Ok I know I shouldn't but hunger took over and it was wors rolls all round. Unfortunately we never got to see the main music attraction aKing, on stage were two youngsters strumming the most depressing songs I've ever heard. When they were joined by a third young lady on violin, who seemed to be playing a completely  different song we decided enough was enough. Did I mention, Boland also had a Red Wine swimming pool? We weren't  that brave "this year", and unfortuntely neither was anyone else during our short visit. So sorry no cool pics of people covered in red wine, darn!

That as they say in the movies was a wrap. We bundled ourselves into the car and headed back home. All in all I can defiantly recommend the Ommiberg Festival. It's a well orchestrated collaboration on the part of the participating wine farms and estates and an excellent day out. "Note to myself - next year I will take the shuttle to the winery's from Laborie" and not try the  maverick approach...

See you next year Ommiberg!!!!! Cant wait...

Lazy Days at Laborie

This Saturday we ventured out to Paarl. I'm a big fan of markets, in fact in the UK I spent almost every Sunday attending everything from Farmers Markets to boot sales. I found out about the Lazy Days Market being held at Laborie via their Facebook page and just had to see it for myself.

It was a pleasant 40 minute drive out to Paarl  from our home in the Northern Suburbs. We were pretty lucky to get parking inside as the drive way was scattered with cars. It was just after 10.30am and the market was already buzzing.  The sun was beating down and hubby and I both wished we had opted for shorts instead of jeans. But all the more reason to explore the clothing in the market.
We had however made one fundamental mistake, we hadn't drawn any cash, other then the lovely lady selling scarves, none of the other traders had hand held terminals. Always the gentlemen, my hubby left me browsing stalls as he trotted over the road to the ATM at the garage (maybe an idea to have one on the premises for the markets?)

Armed with cash we decided refreshments were in order, I opted for a glass of the good stuff from the Laborie wine stand. A glass was R15 with a R20 refundable deposit on the glass. Amazingly enough the lady at the stand recognized us from a previous wine and food pairing we had attended at Laborie back in November. Hubby opted to try one of the German beers available from another stand. We managed to find a cool cotton shirt for hubby, there was only one stand that had any menswear, so he was pretty lucky. No such luck for me, I found the range of ladies clothing a little pricey and all a bit "same old same old"

We nibbled on delicious lamb kebab just R10 and after refilling wine and beer (a bottle was only R45) we headed for the shade to devour the 6 oysters we purchased. R70 for 6. We relaxed on the lawn and listened to the sounds of River Dance being broadcast over some rather large speakers, I wonder if Laborie are considering some live music for the event? Not that the DJ was doing a bad job at all, but live music always has a more festive feel.

Feeling a little cooler we headed for the under cover area of the market. Here we found tons more food stalls, lots of homemade quiche, biltong, and some delicious ostrich droewors, perfect for me and my low fat - heart diet, I had to have some. We were contemplating stocking up on food  at the market and heading for the lawn again versus going to the restaurant for lunch. Sadly  the one thing we would of both enjoyed, the Shawarma's were swamped with flies. For some strange reason there were no candles or nets. An enthusiastic young man was desperately waving his had over the food but he was clearly fighting a losing battle.

We wondered back out into the sunshine, the stalls had suddenly started to empty, it was only 12 O'clock but already some of the exhibitors were packing up. We had browsed all the stores by then and decided to head for the cool of the restaurant. We packed our goodies into the car, I begrudgingly let go of my bottle of wine, promising myself to revisit it later that evening.


As I mentioned earlier, we had visited Laborie prior for wine tasting, but this was our first visit to the restaurant. I had very high expectations and boy I certainly wasn't disappointed. We found a table under the oaks and gratefully sank into our chairs in the shade. We were soon greeted by the amazing Flora, an absolute joy of a women with a smile that lights up her whole face. We ordered water to rehydrate ourselves and a couple of G&T's as you do! Hubby opted for the blue cheese and biltong salad, I decided on the chilled seafood platter. We picked at the fresh, warm olive bread basket, very grateful to have the choice of butter or olive oil and balsamic vinegar with our bread.

Both our lunches were beautifully presented, Hubbys salad boasted huge chunks of blue cheese and biltong and the freshest greens, my fish platter was delicioius, I particularly enjoyed the pickled calamari, again the greens were juicy and fresh, neither of us could finish the large portions. We sipped our gins...

Way too soon, it was time to leave. We called for the bill, which was an extremely reasonable R255 and headed back to our car. Will we go back to Laborie Restaurant? - A resounding Yes - We cant wait ! Maybe next time we will make an evening of it and stay over... We will also be coming back to the Lazy Days Market at some stage, if only for more oysters and wine.

It's still early days for the market, "this was only the second one"  and I'm sure the organisers will re-look the mix of exhibitors. It would be great to have a wider clothing selection and possibly some more gift type items, maybe they would even consider some buskers to add to the Lazy Day feel. As a morning out, I can highly recommend it. See you soon Laborie.