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

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

Jess Dry Rose 2012

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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

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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

To work with Vrede en Lust and its clients and potential clients in order to build the Vrede en Lust brand and to promote the sales of Vrede en Lust’s wine range in Pretoria.

Key Responsibilities:

• Develop a strategy and sales plan to achieve sales objective and budget set by management.
• Execute the strategic sales plan, target correct clients, service those clients and acquire new clients
• Sell wines at promotional opportunities
• Sign up Wine Club members directly where possible.
• Doing corporate and direct tasting events
• Capturing all client information on the company’s online database
• Weekly reports on sales progress
• Interaction with company’s accounts and admin team to ensure that all logistical operations run smoothly.
• Work with the VnL team in organizing marketing events including: Wine Shows, Gourmet Dinners and Participation in other events that promote the VnL brand and product range.

To apply for this position please send your CV and cover letter to madeleine@vnl.co.za

Should you not hear from us within 2 weeks of application, please consider your application unsuccessful.

Closing date for applications: 19 April 2013

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:)

Lunch was a 6-course lavish affair which also represented food from different countries and wines to compliment the dishes.  Anneke and Tobi Jooste were our hosts for the day and Tobi’s beautiful voice and Anneke’s funny antics kept our guests entertained throughout lunch.

It was a wonderful, blessed day and all the staff from Vrede en Lust left tired, but with big smiles on their faces after such a successful day.  This year has certainly inspired us to go even bigger and better next year and we have new and exciting ideas up our sleeves.

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