Therefore it is very important to do something special on Mother’s Day to show them how much they mean to us and spend a bit of quality time with them.

Cotage Fromage at Vrede en Lust has created a mouthwatering feast for this Sunday.  A four-course meal paired with the beautiful wines of Vrede en Lust.

Make sure you book in advance to secure your table and spoil your mom after lunch with a wine tasting in our tasting room.

Mothers day at Cotage Fromage

12th May 2013

Wild Porcini mushroom soup, truffle oil

Marguerite Chardonnay 2011

~

Lightly smoked Franschhoek salmon trout, potato fish cake, Asian greens and tomato compote

Jess Dry Rose 2012

~

Confit duck, pancetta, quail egg and spiced breast with brandied apricots on rye

Syrah 2009

or

Grilled aubergine, butternut and roasted red peppers, balsamic glaze

pecorino cheese on sourdough

Syrah 2009

~

Warm chocolate fondant, berry salad and 70% Venezuela chocolate

Boet Erasmus 2009

R 220 p/p

bookings essential

cotage.fromage@gmail.com

021 874 3991

All our white grapes are now in the cellar and we are just waiting for the last bit of Viognier from Casey’s Ridge. The farm workers are spending their time between Vrede en Lust and Ricton at the moment and harvesting Grenache, Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz.  We are expecting the last of the red varietals from Elgin to come in during the next two weeks.  These will be Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz.

Susan and her team are working at full capacity now and there is no time for rest in between – the biggest challenge now is making sure there there is enough space in the cellar for new grapes coming in while also managing the rest of the winemaking processes.  Careful decisions needs to be made and thousands of liters of wine are moved between tanks for optimum use of our space.

I managed to grab Susan for a second for the latest news from the cellar and was told that we are now busy with the blending and bottling of the Jess 2013 and that the Jess fans can expect the release in spring.

For now I am staying out of the cellar to make sure I’m not in the way of all the hustle and bustle and decided to rather pay a visit to the vineyards.  I managed to get a few smiles there:)

From now on there is nothing pretty about harvesting anymore …  I sneaked a peek into the cellar yesterday as the team was busy with pressing and was really overwhelmed by all the hard-work happening in the cellar.  Here, there are no difference between men and women – everyone is doing their part and everyone has to do the heavy lifting and shifting:)

Let’s hold thumbs for Susan, Etienne, Ansone’ and their team for this week in the cellar as it is sure to be a busy one!

Etienne and Norman discussing the next load of grapes to arrive.

Beautiful Pinot Grigio

The first week of harvest is behind us and what a busy week it has been.  Susan and her team have been working around the clock and is very excited about the results of the first week’s harvest.  It is a treat to walk into the cellar and experience the daily hustle and bustle of everyone working at their fastes pace.  The cellar smells wonderful and the aromas of the grapes fill your senses when you take a walk through the different processes going.  I can’t help but smile when I’m in the cellar as no one is really looking up from what they are doing and you can see everyone is really focused.  I’m always popping in for some news and feedback and I think a good sign is that Susan is always smiling and looking very calm and composed:)

The grapes are looking magnificent and we can expect great results.

More than 90 tons of grapes were harvested and we started off with mostly white cultivars.

This morning at 6am was the moment we have all been waiting for a while now.  The excitement was palpable during the past week and today the wait is over – we are in full harvest mode!  The trucks from our Simonsberg-Paarl farm arrived and we’ve taken in almost 15tons of Chardonnay today.  The quality seems excellent and a great start to our first day.

Most of our premium range grapes will arrive this week and we are expecting the Chenin Blanc for Sarah and the Pinotage for Jess to be next in line with possibly the Malbec as well.  According to Susan and Etienne we can expect excellent quality grapes this year due to a much colder winter than usual.  This had a direct impact on the budding of the vines, especially the Chardonnay and Shiraz.

We also took a preventative measures this year for pests in the vineyard and thanks to these actions we had a pest free season and luckily no Mealybug.  This improved the set of the vineyard and therefore we can expect a higher production in volume this year.

For now everyone seems really calm and excited in the cellar and there are smiles all around, but as we all know, harvest is a very stressful time of the year for winemakers and there are always the usual challenges that only good logistics and planning can solve.  With two farms between which we have to coordinate, space is always a problem in the cellar as there is just no holding back when the grapes are ready and on its way to the cellar.

We wish Etienne, Susan and Ansone’ a very blessed harvest and hope that all their hard work will pay off in the form of excellent wines.

Our cellar team for this year:

Etienne, Susan & Ansone’

Baron, Jeremy & Anthony – our cellar workers

Dirk Tredoux – winemaker & harvest intern

Anthony Sandivo – student from Stellenbosch university and harvest intern

Juliana Person – winemaker and intern from USA

Today I would like to feature my personal favourite of the whole Vrede en Lust range – the Babylonsig Pinotage 2011.  This is one of our newest releases, part of our exclusive Artisan range and becoming a sure favourite with tasting room guests.  This is the first time that Vrede en Lust released a Pinotage and if I’m allowed to make any predictions I’ll say not the last!

The Babylonsig Pinotage was a project initiated by our management to empower the cellar and farm workers, thereby giving them a project that they could take ownership of. This is also the first Pinotage ever released by Vrede en Lust. With the close guidance of Susan, the farm and cellar team was allowed to select and care for a section of the Pinotage vineyard and took charge of the winemaking process of this beautiful, one of a kind Pinotage.

The result – a deep purple coloured wine, with typical Pinotage fruit on the nose, matured in barrel for 11 months leading to balanced complexity between fruit and oak. 

The Babylonsig Pinotage is only available in our tasting room or for Wine Club Members

The 2013 harvest looks very promising at this stage, with a cold winter, lots of rain, followed by a cool spring behind us. Early summer was cool with a hot week before Christmas. Lets hope the weather stays fairly moderate as we head into veraison. Susan and Ansoné are particularly interested in the Pinot Noir and Riesling coming into maiden vintage from our Elgin vineyards.

2012 kicked off on a very special and high note: the premiere of the hit Afrikaans romatic comedy, Semi-Soet which was shot on the estate and featured Vrede en Lust as itself (with some different characters of course!). The movie has done extremely well, running for a record season in the movies houses, then on to DVD release, Pay per View release on DSTV and now on Apple’s iTunes for all the overseas folks.

It was only a huge pleasure and privilege being able to work with Anel and James Alexander as well as their top notch team. Professional, friendly and just plain great people. Thanks Semi-Soet – you really helped up a LOT! We wish you well in your new ventures and you will always be friends of Vrede en Lust.

New Boet Erasmus Packaging

The 2012 harvest was a great one; both in terms of quality and quantity. We had no disease problems and a late harvest, which meant extra hang time for greater flavour development. We crushed just over 700 tons, our largest harvest to date. The Elgin vineyard are maturing into fine quality production and we had the best ever Cabernet Sauvignon from our Simonsberg vineyards. Susan gave birth to little Anna weeks after the harvest ended, so a tough one for Susan with lots of help from Ansoné.

Some of our 2012 wines have been released  - the Jess 2012 in May 2012, the Mocholate Malbec 2012 in Oct, the Red Lady Merlot 2012 in November and the revamped Sarah 2012 in December. Sarah has graduated from high school and changed from an unwooded Chardonnay to a more complex and interesting Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc and Viognier blend that is flying out of the tasting room!

During the year, we started rolling out our updated label design, done by Vanessa Fogel. The brief was to create 4 more distinct tiers (Entry,Mid,Flagship plus Artisan), but to ensure visual continuity with the previous labels at the same time. I think she achieved the brief objectives perfectly! As we move to new vintage releases, the new labels will roll out across the range.

The 2012 cool climates whites from our Elgin vineyard are getting ready for release in the coming months. We aim to release them at least a year post harvest, in order to get them to the right level of maturation which is slower for cool climate wines. The 2011 Barrique and 2011 Artisan Range Chenin Blanc (single vineyard) were both rated 5 stars in Neil Pendock’s new blind tasted wine guide. The Barrique also rated in the Top 6 South African white blends by Classic Wine.

At Wine-X in Johannesburg we had the unique experience of 4 wines in the top 10 wines on show as rated by the public and in fact 7 wines in the top 20 overall. The Boet Erasmus 2009 was rated #1 red wine with the Barrique 2011 rated #2 white wine on show. The Jess 2012 was the only Rosé in the Top 10 white wines! That is really a fantastic achievement and testimony to the joint efforts in the vineyards, cellar and tasting team coming together perfectly.

Visitors Votes for Favourite Wines on Show for 850+ wines from 170 wineries

In August Etienne took over the day to day management of Vrede en Lust, following 14 years as partner and manager of the farming and vineyard operations. The transition was smooth and easy. He has been doing a great job and his focus is evident in the solid growth achieved over last year. Etienne has a very strong team in place now, with lots of momentum. I continue as owner and ‘chairman’ of the business, working with the team re strategy and direction.

MeiJun Wu joined us as our first International employee, based in Shenzen, Guandong Province, China. We have been working on the Chinese market for a few years now, but decided that the language and communication barriers were too severe without local presence. May has done a great job so far, with the first container getting ready for shipment. We are very excited about the growth opportunities ahead in China, as the wine market there develops in leaps and bounds.

Tammy Bloom joined us as Johannesburg sales rep in October which has really helped grow the Gauteng sales. Karen Coyne joined as KZN sales rep late in the year, rounding out our regional sales team. We have done very well in the retail environment this year and will put more effort into the restaurant business in 2013.

Solar Power Installation at Vrede en Lust Winery

Electricity became our second largest direct input expense, following years of relentless price hikes from ESKOM. Guided by our brother Johan Buys’ expertise in the solar energy field, we set up a plan to build an photo-voltaic solar energy plant large enough to meet the winery’s annual energy needs. Installation of the 220KWp plant started in November and is due for completion early in the new year. This will ensure we have much more control over our energy costs going forward whilst also making a significant contribution of the environment as part of our process of becoming a carbon neutral winery.

Our tasting room team has done so well, achieving both record wine sales and great reviews on TripAdvisor, where we are rated the #3 activity in the Franschhoek valley. Our hospitality division has also been pulling in solid reviews, with a significant move up into the TripAdvisor Franschhoek Top-10 under Lynne’s caring touch. Those of you who know the valley, will know there is a lot of serious competition here!

Last but not least, thanks to your support, we have had a very busy and successful Christmat/New Year holiday season at the farm!

Jean-Pierre Uys Photography

As most of you will know, Vrede en Lust has one of the most amazing and popular wedding venues in the country – even if we may say so ourselves.  This time of the year wedding season is in full swing and young couples are either getting engaged, are busy planning their wedding or getting married.  Everyone has a bit of a hop and a skip in their walk and feel ready to fall in love.  For those who have long been married and have no interest to read about beautiful dresses, jaw-dropping views and pretty flowers… feel free to head on over to the wine section here.

Let’s be honest… this time of year no one is really in the mood to read anything or learn anything new. Instead of boring you with details about all the photographic opportunities on the estate, boutique accommodation for most of your guests, award-winning wines, our amazing venue and super professional and friendly hospitality staff to name a few things… I am just going to make this post a feast for the eyes:)  I even created a mood board with images from Pinterest to showcase a few beautiful ideas to incorporate into your wedding.

Our Pinterest mood board

Vivid Blue Photography

Vivid Blue Photography

Nikki Meyer Photography

Jean-Pierre Uys Photography

Jean-Pierre Uys Photography

Zara Zoo Photography

It literally looks as if Rudolph the red nose reindeer sneezed all over Vrede en Lust… We are completely in the spirit of things and every inch of the tasting room and entrance have been decorated with Christmas trimmings.

Since our colour is red it is just normal that all of us absolutely adore Christmas at the estate.  First, we would like to thank all our loyal customers who have supported us through this year which has indeed been a wonderful year for Vrede en Lust.  So much has happened and so many successes have been celebrated and none of it would have been possible without the loyal clients of Vrede en Lust.  We would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a blessed festive season with family and friends.

To show our gratitude we are running a wide variety of specials during the festive season and would like to invite everyone to pay a visit to our “Christmas tasting room”.

Bin-end Specials (only in our tasting room):

Casey’s Ridge Viognier 2010

Barrique 2010

Pinot Grigio 2010

CCV 2010

Buy 6 bottles for the price of 5:

Sarah 2010 (Unwooded Chardonnay)

Casey’s Ridge Sauvignon Blanc 2011

White Mischief 2011

Accommodation Specials for January and February

Jonkmanshuis Cottages:  R 650 p.p.s.p.n - normal rate R 890

Manor House: R 1500 p.p.s.p.n - normal rate R 2270

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________