Hi All. Back at another Friday. They seem to be coming faster and faster as the year is going by. Things are great here and the weather has been fantastic.

We are giving away something utterly unique and entirely special just for you this week, a Fynbos Walk for a group of up to 8 people around the estate, with Rob, who will go through how we like to farm and show you all the Fynbos regeneration projects. Following the walk, a cellar tour and a barrel tasting with Nikey, the winemaker. Both these experiences are not special and unique to the farm, with two experts in their respective fields leading you through their particular passions.

So here are the terms of the competition: This image relates directly to another Fynbos Friday post on the site. What you are looking at here is a particular species of Fynbos in its very early phase of budding.  For a full list of the Fynbos Friday posts, click the link here where they are all listed easily for you to reference.  (A helpful hint, Fynbos varies greatly in colour so you will have to think outside the box with this one)

Entries can be done only via e-mail to me; and it is not that hard guys. You have seen it before somewhere in our Fynbos Friday’s.

Please send your entries to:

web@hautespoir.com

Use the heading: Fynbos Friday Competition

The competition is closed as soon as we have the first correct entry.

Thank you for listening.

Make your way to the picturesque Franschhoek Wine Valley, over the weekend of 4 and 5 September, for the unique spring wine meander, Franschhoek Uncorked. This multi-faceted celebration takes place on satellite farms throughout the Valley, and affords award-winning wineries – as well as the smaller hidden gems – the opportunity to ‘bloom’ as they showcase new vintages and releases, coinciding with the onset of spring.

Highly acclaimed wineries, participating in this much loved event include Boekenhoutskloof, Boschendal, Cabrière, Solms-Delta, Graham Beck Wines, La Motte, Anthonji Rupert Wines, Môreson, Vrede en Lust and Plaisir de Merle. Also included in the line up are some of Franschhoek’s smaller gems such as Dieu Donné, GlenWood, Haut Espoir, La Bri, La Petite Ferme, Topiary and Maison. In addition select wineries will keep their visitors entertained with a range of events, whilst sampling their fine wines.

Take in the picturesque scenery while soaking in country hospitality at its best. Wander along leisurely from farm to farm, enjoying some of live entertainment on show while sampling fine wines and delectable treats, such as oysters, smoked salmon, creative curry combos, tapas and al fresco platters; a taste of what you can expect from South Africa’s gourmet capital.

With most of the Franschhoek Vignerons participating in this innovative initiative, there promises to be something for everyone with: cellar- and vineyard tours, barrel-tastings, a micro-brewery tasting , delectable food- and wine pairings, art exhibitions, a flower-bulb market, a food-and-wine market boasting fresh, organic food, a fynbos trail and wine-blending, to name but a few. For music-lovers, there are live music extravaganzas which cater for all tastes, ranging from jazz- and blues bands to French bistro genres to fiesta Española flamenco. To add to the ‘local is lekker’ flavour, visitors can also expect to be entertained by a handful of top local musicians. Motor car exhibitions add an innovative and ‘racy’ element to this year’s Uncorked with: Aston Martin, Porsche, Maserati and Ferrari’s all on show.

An access card system will be implemented to ensure the successful running of Franschhoek Uncorked. The access cards, available directly from participating wineries on the day or through Computicket, at R80.00 each, includes a tasting glass and free wine tasting at participating wineries for the duration of the event. A shuttle service will assist responsible tasting and allow for easy, hassle-free transport at this popular social calendar event.

So, with something for everyone, make a weekend of your visit, taking full advantage of the various accommodation packages on offer. Come and indulge yourself as you witness the country’s gourmet capital blossom and come alive.

For more information about the festival, please contact: Darielle Robertson Events Manager: Franschhoek Wine Valley Tel: 021 876 2861 Email: events@franschhoek.org.za

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We are back on the floral track this week the Common Pagoda or Rooistompie in Afrikaans.   We have just a handful of these flowering on the mountain at the moment and they make a spectacular display, so full of colour and full of life. The Sugar and Sunbirds are going crazy for these flowers at the moment.   Now the Mimetes are commonly referred to as the Cowl Pagodas, and are easily identified apart from other Proteas due to their unique flower and leaf shape.  They are some of the most fascinating plant types and the variation between regional colour is amazing.

What sets the Rooistompie apart from other Mimetes is that is the only species in the family to resprout after a fire, every other species of Mimetes will germinate from seed after a fire.  And due to the fire we had about two years ago on this section of the mountain, this particular stand of Pagodas is looking stunning.  We are experiencing a darker red colour in the flowers this season, the reasons are unbeknown to me.

And then trawling through the medicinal or commercial uses of the plants reveals that the bark was used for tanning and the flowers mainly for the cutflower industry.

For more info on this fascinating species of the Protea family please visit Plantzafrica for more info

Hope you enjoyed this week’s installment of Fynbos Friday and have a great weekend.

Bastille has come and gone again, left us a little tired after a cracker weekend in the Hoek, but happy with what we achieved. We have found two nice mentions on the farm on some of the unique things we were offering here. Thank you to the two guys who were kind enough to mention the farm on their blogs.

My Cape Town had this to say:

This was the first year that the Bastille Festival did not clash with the Knysna Oyster Festival which is great for those that enjoy both events (like I do). I’m not sure how this affected the attendance, but I believe it was the busiest festival so far.

It really was the most incredible weather the whole weekend. It was hard to believe we are still in winter. We then moved from the sunny outdoors to the barrel cellar where we tasted several wines direct from the barrel. This is always an interesting exercise, tasing wines at various stages of development and also comparing the impact of different types of wood on the wines. We were also treated to a taste of the as yet unnamed white version of the Gentle Giant. It’s looking very promising.

Then we got a mention on YmartinY for a similar experience.

We started Saturday with a cellar tour and ended it with another unplanned one at Haut Espoir with the Mr Gentle Giant himself treating us to a vertical tasting of his Shiraz’s.

We were Hustlin’… and so were the wines!

The private nature of the tastings we were doing and the ability to take people into the cellar which forms such a part of our lives is unique and stands out. This is personal to us and we like to share that with you.

Thank you to all who made the trip out to our corner of the Hoek, we look forward to seeing you before the next Bastille.

I am sure if you’ve been following us on twitter and Facebook, you might have picked up that were fond of a few things other than fynbos and wine…

Two which we are particularly fond of are beer and sport.

Going into every bottle of Haut Espoir is an element of the team here on the farm. We have a permanent work force of 14 guys who mean alot to us. The core ingredient in the magic we bottle. So this was a day off to focus on taking the team away from the normal routines, and a little bit of an adventure for us all. There was a little football tournament happening in Cape Town at the time. Semi Finals of sorts as well, we believed…

Last-minute-spur-of-the-moment-kind-of-thing we decided to take last Tuesday off and do the fan walk with the team. It being the last day to see the 2010 Fan Walk Cape Town for the big event. Since we had been giving the team off to watch games when they play during the day and since we are just spur-of-the-moment-people, we put raid to moms cottage, put on a boerie roll and had a good old fashioned laugh.

We saw fit to take the guys in to town for the day, which began early with a Puma & Union warm up.

And then on to the fan walk; we made a bee line straight for the stadium, vuvuzelas blasting at around twelve o clock and not stopping until we got there.

On the way we walked through the groves of Just Trees trees; those fever trees really do look stunning outside Truth Coffee.

And then back over the bridge; and this is where it turned really interesting. I thought we would head all the way back down into the heart of town and take in some of the fan fest build up; so we put it to the guys, who were by this stage relatively thirsty after the sprint to the stadium and back, where a unanimous decision was taken to head back to & Union for lunch and a few more #realbeers.

A great day out, and a big hats off to the guys, this is the team that is behind every bottle of wine we produce. Please do not see this as charity, these guys are an intergral part of the family essence of this farm and the entire team that aims to produce the best wines in the world. This was a celebration of an incredible few weeks in this amazing country, South Africa, where we hosted the world in a way that even the world was not quite ready for. The incredible energy that was in every corner, every nook and cranny of every city in South Africa. We felt honored to be able to take the day off and be a part of the experience in the environment it was most real.

Have a great weekend.

Franschhoek’s Bastille Day Festival Celebration is happening again, and because of the winding down of the event that Fifa will not allow me to mention on a public website without paying them for it, we are sure that this year’s festival will be packed to absolute capacity.

All the usual fun activities will be taking place again.

There is the fun run and walk from the Victor Verster Prison. The Franschhoek Wine Valley has throughout the years been linked with the pursuit of freedom, as the destination where the French Huguenots sought refuge from persecution. Aside from the European legacy, the connection with freedom is also evident in a local context with the Drakenstein Prison (formerly Victor Verster), the prison from which the iconic Nelson Mandela was released, situated between Franschhoek and Paarl. This year in particular will be more significant as it commemorates the 20th anniversary of Mr Mandela’s release from the exact prison.

The Franschhoek minstrels will parade through the village on Saturday Morning. There will be the Barrel Rolling Competition where Franschhoek’s Wine Estates take part in rolling Franschhoek’s finest wine barrels to victory.

The ever popular Boules Competition will again take place in fine style as members of the public compete in teams for the coveted title of Boules Champions for 2010. Click here to book by email in the Boules Competition

A farmers’ market, craft market stalls, musicians and children’s activities are also included in the line up of festival celebrations.

So make sure that you book early for the Food & Wine Marquee.
Tickets can be obtained from the Webtickets Website Here.

As usual our video camera will be there to capture all the action of this year’s event.

Coming to the Bastille Festival? Keep an eye on the weather here!!!

We are always excited for the weekend as the tasting room is packed full of jovial folk from the fairest cape and beyond. This year the real Frenchies will no doubt be wanting to celebrate and forget their team’s performance in the World Cup. Let’s hope a Frenchman can take the stage at the Tour de France to reinstate some French pride.

If you want make your way to the farm for a tasting, please be sure to call in advance as it is going to be jam packed all weekend. Make sure to use the contact form in the top banner.

Found this wonderful article over atWineTimes. Have a look at this amazing gadget…

GN Dynamic Sources brings you an amazing tool that will enhance your wine drinking experience. It’s a Wine Temperature Guide. The PVC strip is strapped around the body of the bottle with Velcro and after a few seconds the LCD screen indicates the temperature of your wine. We have designed the product to include the varietals that are South African-specific, such as Pinotage and Méthode Cap Classic (MCC) as well as other popular cultivars such as Sauvignon Blanc, Chenin Blanc, Shiraz, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, along with red blends and white blends. We offer our product in some exciting colours; deep maroon, bottle green, royal blue, silver grey. So it not only tells you what the actual temperature of your wine is, but will also indicate the different temperatures at which each specific type of wine should be enjoyed.

There is also an indication of “room temperature” and the ideal storage temperature for your wine. Why do I need this you might ask? The taste of the wine with all the individual characteristics and flavours is greatly enhanced by drinking it at the right temperature. You might also not be aware of the difference that the correct temperature would make to your drinking pleasure. We would like to make it our aim to educate you with this knowledge so that you can appreciate your wine to the full every single time. Red wines should be consumed slightly chilled as the South African “room temperature” is just too warm. Similarly with white wine, their optimum drinking pleasure is greatly enhanced at different temperatures.

We sometimes leave our white wines in an ice bucket until it is well below its optimum drinking temperature, thereby reducing the effect of the various characteristics that make the various cultivars so different and enjoyable. For our customers that are in the wine, restaurant and retail industry this product will prove to be invaluable to your customer’s tasting experience. Besides the useful function of the Wine Temperature Guide, it can also serve as an advertising tool as it can be branded with logos, website information, contact details, etc.

Furthermore, the packaging can have additional information and advertising strategies printed onto it for maximum effect. To place your order and be one of the first people in the country to have this useful product and wonderful marketing tool, please contact us at gn.dynamicsources@gmail.com or phone Gino on 0767591504. There we have it. This will surely improve everybody’s wine drinking experience. We are excited to try this one out…

This week we venture away from the Floral side, and venture into the fascinating world of Papio hamadryas.   I am very fond of Bobbos.  We get a lot of them on the farm.  Have a look see at our clip on Cellar visitors

There is a massive troop that’s been entertaining itself in the sun on our winery roof every other day. They might be boisterous and cause a bit of damage to the vines, eat our grapes and cause a stir once in a while but we have to realize that we are in their territory so one cannot be too precious about how we treat our faunal neighbours.   The fires of the season have most effectively wiped out the entire food source for the winter months for these guys and I suppose to a certain extent they have had to rely on blocks of chardonnay and shiraz throughout the entire valley.   You may have seen a few articles flying around during harvest season about the baboon raiders, like this one. The Proteas are getting nailed as well, they are especially fond of the sugarbushes right now, suppose that sweet nectar is too much to resist.

Baboons around the country vary massively in terms of colour variation, depending on age, sex, and geography.  Our Cape Chacma’s tend to be quite dark and somewhat larger in general than other baboons around SA.  Their upper canines are strongly developed, with the length in old adult males reaching up to 60 mm.    These canines are massive, and as sharp as a razor blade.   I would not like to see the business end of an aggravated male that’s for sure.  I don’t even think my newly acquired Muay Thai skills would be much of a help against a strong willed big male.    The average troop size is 40, the largest can be up to 130, and they do travel.  Their home range can be anything up to 30 kilometres sq.

And I especially enjoyed this piece on the diet from Skinner et al. The Mammals of the Southern African Subregion “Food: they are omnivorous, feeding primarily on fruit, leaves and invertebrates throughout the year.  DeVore and Hall (1965), for instance, stated that it is simpler to list the items not eaten by baboons than to describe the items they do eat. “

And if you haven’t seen this yet, look out for  Eric in Its a piece of cake.  Its an awesome book for the kiddies.  James is utterly fascinated with Eric and requests this as his bedtime story more than any book right now.   Love the Carrot cake vibe there.   For some interesting facts and a great read follow African Penguin on Twitter

And please take time to visit Baboon Matters and get involved, take a walk with them, sign the petition.  The Bobbos need our help.

It’s an absolute privilege to live where we do, which is something we never take for granted. There are moments every single day which catch us unaware and remind us of how magical this little slice of heaven is. Today we wanted to share some random images which Rob loves taking so much.  A mere sliver into the magic that is Haut Espoir.

Please do not forget to keep checking in with us here, as well as on Twitter, Facebook or our Posterous page. We are continuously updating all of them.

See you all tomorrow for Fynbos Friday. In the meantime, flip through the images and have a great afternoon.