Delaire

A friend of mine from New Zealand was here on Sunday so we went on a wine tour. I had wanted to take him to some wineries in Helderberg as the views from some of those wineries are fantastic. As they were shut on Sundays, I decided to take him to some wineries in Stellenbosch, Helshoogte Pass.

We started at Delaire, which was a great choice. The wine tasting room is under renovation, so they are holding the wine tasting down stairs in a very nicely set up room. The table was long, nicely set up for many guests, the lights were at the right setting, there was wine displayed in a cabinet at one end of the room and a fireplace at the other end. Plenty of staff were waiting for the first lot of guests to arrive at 10am, and we ended up with great service from Elsje. She really knew her wine and gave great information on each one.

The style of this place is very modern, flash and it feels welcoming. The scenery outside is amazing, the doors at the front are very interesting, I love the water feature running through the building, the restaurant looks lovely also.

As for the wines, this is my second time coming here for a tasting, and I was pleasantly surprised at how much more I liked the wines this time round. Last time I went to Delaire was in August 2010, so whether the wine has changed that much in one year, or I am more open to SA wines I am not sure. Either way, the wines are lovely and I totally recommend you come here for a tasting!!

I really liked the Sauvignon Blanc coastal Cuvee at R85 a bottle. It was smooth, rounded and had a light fruity taste, very nice! The Delaire SB 2010 was also nice at R79 a bottle. The Chardonnay was buttery and was the favourite amongst us all. For the record, majority of the people in my group at the tasting, do not like Chardonnay's normally, so this was a pleasant find for all. This was R105 a bottle. The Rose 2010 had a nice colour, nice taste and has a slightly dry aftertaste. It sells for R65 a bottle. The Shiraz 2009 was a little spicy, had a smokey taste to it, was a little dry and had a lot of flavour!! This sells for R130 a bottle. The Botmanskop 2008 was the favourite for most of us out of the reds. It was smooth and very tasty, this sold for R130 a bottle.

I highly recommend you visit this winery. It will be great once they have the upstairs tasting room finished, as the views you get while tasting the wine are amazing. It was actually for this reason I wanted to bring my friend here. Having the tasting downstairs we unfortunately missed out on the views however, my friend was highly impressed with the room we did do the tasting in, so it was still a great experience.