It was clear that Semi-Soet held great potential for Vrede en Lust as a brand to get on board and become part of this new Afrikaans production as the main location for the film. As well-experienced the cast and crew were, I think we are still amazed at how excellent this entire project was executed and how well it has been received by the South African public to date.

The movie has enjoyed a great run in theaters. To date, nearly 300,000 people have seen the movie. According to the Alexanders,  the highlight for them as producers has been the overwhelmingly positive feedback. Film critics rated Semi-Soet highly and it is  clear that the South African audience  loved it too!

Semi-Soet’s attendance soon beat the previous Afrikaans success story Platteland  (released late November 2011): in the 3^rd weekend of Semi-Soet’s run , it surpassed Platteland’s attendances by 111,7%, setting it up for the 4^thweekend by 176,5%, the 5^th weekend by 402,7%, the 6^th weekend by 278,4% and the 7^th weekend by 301,8%! Semi-Soet is currently still showing at just over 30 theatres while in its 9^th week!

The latest box office figures showed that up until the 8^th week, Semi-Soet has generated a total of R8 million nett at Box Office. Typically, the DVD sales and Pay TV agreements are worth more than box office sales, so the Producers are rather excited to see what the lifetime holds for this Afrikaans romcom. The planned release date for the DVD is 30 April and currently it is the top DVD on pre-orders on Kalahari.net!

The cast included former Afrikaans soap 7de Laan stars like Nico Panagio and Diaan Lawrenson,  Paul du Toit (Binnelanders) and Corine du Toit. The talented Sandra Vaughn (from Getroud met Rugby) was both the scriptwriter and one of the main characters in the movie. Her character  falls in love with comedian Louw Venter. These two characters  caused lots of laughs in the movie.

The crew booked in on the 17^th of April last year and by the 5^th of May they had completed  the wine farm scenes that made up almost 70% of the movie. The weather, true to the Cape, gave them some  breathtaking summer days and some cold, rainy days, perfect for  their fireplace scenes.

Although some of the shots in the movie look  too good to be true, the director promises he did not edit the lighting and colour at all! It is one of the suprises of  the film and something that struck our consciousness – to see how beautiful our workplace is on the big screen!

Anel and James had a very competent team that came on board, like the Director Joshua Rous, who worked on a previous film with Anel and James, called “Discreet” where they co-starred. Scramble Productions is the Alexanders’ start-up production company.

We  accommodated most of the cast and crew on our premises during their shooting period. With them sleeping and shooting in the same spaces, it contributed a great deal to the feel and the experience they had and created on set.  The energetic, positive and kind group of people got the opportunity to truly experience our historic Manor House and Jonkmanshuis. Chef Duncan from Cotage Fromage prepared a delicious buffet every morning and afternoon.  Many thought it was the best on-set food ever!

In February this year we were involved in both the Johannesburg and Cape Town movie premieres. The Jo’burg premiere hosted 1,000 guests at the Montecasino Nu Metro theatres. The majority of guests were local celebrities, singers, actors, filmmakers, sponsors, media and corporates. Because of our partnership and wine sponsorship for these events and further marketing initiatives, we were also granted a certain number of complimentary invitations which we extended to our Gauteng-based Wine club members. They had the opportunity to be part of this classy, formal event and to share the red carpet with some big local personalities.

The Cape Town premiere was on a much smaller scale and hosted entirely by us, so we had the opportunity to invite  our Cape Town-based Wine club members, friends and family, the local media partners plus some cast’s friends or family that could not make the Jo’burg event. It was another classy event, but more intimate than the Jo’burg one, hosted at The Fugard Theatre in District six.

James from Salt & Pepper Catering added to a lovely evening with delicious canapés and of course all our passionate ladies in red were serving our Jess Dry Rosé, Sauvignon Blanc or Boet Erasmus wines. They looked just as elegant as the movie stars! To add to the romantic ambiance, we partnered with Lindt to provide delicious dark chocolate to pair with the Boet Erasmus!

There were a mix of Afrikaans and English-speaking guests and the feedback on the night was that it was greatly enjoyed and definitely exceeded everyone’s  expectations. It is a movie that portrays the Afrikaner in a more aspiring manner vs the slapstick movies of late.

In addition to the release of the movie, we launched a limited edition of the Boet Erasmus 2008. We named the wine “Vryersvoetpad” after the scene in the movie where Jaci (Alexander) and JP (Panagio) walk a lover’s lane of sorts and end up being chased by a pig into a dam and ended in a tree. The image on the label of the wine is synonymous with the imagery from the scene. Each bottle is numbered to a total of 1,400 and very little stock is still available from Makro and our tasting room. For Semi-Soet lovers, this wine can remain a collector’s item or serve well on a romantic date!

If you have not seen the movie, whether you are English or Afrikaans, we want to encourage you to go watch the movie, even if it is just to support a bit of local romantic-comedy. I am almost sure to say that you will be pleasantly surprised! And if you still don’t like watching Afrikaans movies (with English sub-titles), at least you will see how stunning Vrede en Lust looks on big screen!

We will have another movie night at Vrede en Lust for all the farm staff that has not yet seen the movie, pure with popcorn, Coke and a big screen!

We are very happy that Anel walked in here that day! James, Anel and the rest of the team, from our side CONGRATULATIONS on pulling together such a quality production and for making Vrede en Lust one of the stars in it!

Local is lekker!
To read more about the movie visit our website

We crushed a total of 701 tons this harvest – our biggest crush to date. The 2012 crush is 22% larger overall than the 2011 crush, most of the growth due to our Elgin vineyards getting to more mature production.

Our winery’s maximum capacity is about 750 tons, but due to the late harvesting of the grapes from the Simonsberg-Paarl vineyards, things were tight in the winery this year. Susan and Ansone had to shuffle and plan tanks very carefully to make everything fit in.

In ‘normal (if there is such a thing anymore) years’ we would have been done with the reds from Simonsberg-Paarl a few weeks earlier, which would leave more space in the winery for the Elgin reds coming in. The cool early spring and early summer resulted in much longer hang times which should translate into some excellent wines from the 2012 crush.

All in all things worked out well though and we have started removing the 4Ha (10 acre) block 18 of Cab Sauv at Vrede en Lust, as we optimize production for the winery. That will reduce the Cab crop by about 32 tons going forward. It is really upsetting, as this 1999 block should have been in peak production now, but the quality was never there, probably caused by poor planting material during the planting bubble of the late 90′s.

We will let the block rest for about 4 years before replanting. Still need to decide what we will replant with, but we have time on our side for that key decision.

Reds still make up 71% of our crush, but that % will go down as production at our Elgin vineyards ramp up over the next few years. By 2013 we expect to take in the maiden Riesling and Pinot Noir harvests at Casey’s Ridge in Elgin and by 2016 all of our Elgin vineyards will be in full production.

Overall, we harvest quite a range of grape cultivars as the graph below shows. 14 different cultivars at present, going up to 16 with the Riesling and Pinot Noir next year. That is a big selection of grapes but it gives our winemakers choices and options. Some cultivars (such as Petit Verdot and Grenache) are used only as blending components. Other cultivars are produced for a very specific purpose, such as being the main blend component in Jess for our Pinotage.

The graph above shows the cultivars harvested by Wine of Origin, with the grapes from our two Simonsberg-Paarl (SP) vineyards shown in red and the grapes from our Elgin vineyards shown in green.

The Merlot production is split between the Boet Erasmus and the Red Lady; the small Malbec harvest this year will be split between the Boet Erasmus and the Mocholate Malbec and the Shiraz is split between the Syrah and a portion that is harvested earlier for our Jess Rose. The Cab Sauv goes to the Boet Erasmus with the excess sold of as bulk wine.

From the 701 tons crushed, we will end up with approximately 420,000 liters of wine. We will bottle about 270,000 liters (30,000 9L cases) under the Vrede en Lust label. The remaining 150,000 liters will be sold as bulk wine to other wineries.

Susan and Ans will have a few key decisions to make this year:

• Blend the Syrah’s from Elgin and Simonsberg-Paarl or keep them separate ? Hard call as the Elgin Syrah is so beautiful in its own right.
• Blend the two Viogniers or bottle them apart? Maybe an easier call as the Elgin Viognier has improved hugely in 2011.
• Keep Sarah as an unwooded Chardonnay or add some Chenin and dash of Viognier to make it more interesting and unique?
• Keep some of the registered single vineyard Elgin Chenin for a high end, cool climate chenin bottling?
• What will we do with the Elgin Bordeaux reds – Cab Sauv, Cab Franc and Merlot? Small blend for the Artisan Range or cultivar bottlings for same, or blending into the larger Boet Erasmus blend ?

Click here if you cannot see this gallery (iPhone, iPad etc)

Duncan and his team from Cotage Fromage looked after the food side, Susan and her team provided some wines on tap plus the ‘Feddeerweiser’, Anneke and her team previewed the new releases and two bands provided lots of entertainment. Thanks to all who worked so hard to make this possible and of course to our guests who seemed to love the day! Until next year when we celebrate Vrede en Lust’s 325th anniversary!

This year we celebrate the 10th anniversary of the new winery and 324 years of passion, since Jacques de Savoye founded Vrede en Lust in 1688!

There are only 120 tickets available and a number of last year’s guests have already applied for bookings, so please book soonest to avoid disappointment.

The Harvest Festival is one of the highlights on our calendar! Those who want to harvest some grapes themselves, will be able to get into the vineyards with Etienne & Susan earlier in the morning – just come prepared with a change of clothes.

Wines to be released

The Boet Erasmus 2009, the Syrah 2009, and Caseys’ Ridge Elgin Viognier 2011. In addition, the 4 wines that make up the exclusive and limited release Artisan Range will be available for tasting and purchase to all guests. These wines are normally only available to Wine Club members: The Chenin-Chardonnay-Viognier 2010 (Elgin), the Shiraz-Cabernet Sauvignon 2009 (Simonsberg-Paarl), The Barrique Semillon-Sauvignon Blanc 2011 (Elgin) and the newly releases Syrah 2010 from our Elgin vineyards.

Theme

Red and white. Please dress accordingly, the best dressed couple will win a special autographed set of the Vryersvoetpad 2008 wine released to celebrate the movie Semi-Soet!

Program for the day

11:00 Jess cocktail, grape picking and grape stomping
12:00 Starters and Federweisser served
12:30 Start of a long, lazy lunch with Wine on Tap!
13:30 Desert
14:30 Blessing of the Harvest, Balloons of Dreams and announcement of the Best Dressed Couple

From 11:00 – 16:00 Tasting of the newly released wines, Boulles  & live entertainment

De Savoye Day Lunch Menu

Duncan and his team at the Cotage Fromage have created a very special menu for the day:

Starter

• Baby onion quiches
•  Gazpacho

 Main

• Duck liver parfait
•  Hot smoked salmon terrine
•  Rare roasted fillet of beef
•  Chicken coronation
•  Cold meats and cheeses
•  Baby beef and chicken burgers
•  Lime potato salad
•  Curried chickpea salad
•  Tuscan panzanella salad

 Dessert

• Special selection of hand made Ice Creams

De Savoye Day Tickets

Public - R295 per person, Wine Club Members enjoy their WineClub discounts for themselves and one partner/guest. Wine Club Members also enjoy booking priority. Tickets include the Harvest Lunch, lots of wine on tap and all activities.

No charge for children of 12 years and younger – there will be a secure play area with nannies where food and cold drinks will be provided.

Only 120 tickets are available! To avoid disappointment, please book your tickets as soon as possible and confirm you’re booking by sending your proof of payment to Elzaan Louwrens. Please note that seats will be allocated on a strictly first-pay basis.

Banking details:
Vrede en Lust at Nedbank, Business Winelands
Branch code: 149821 Account number: 1498080960 Reference: “Savoye” and last name

Accommodation

Our accommodation is already booked up for the weekend, but there are a number of options nearby at a range of prices to meet all budgets!

• Cathbert Country Inn (4 Star) – 021 874 1366
• Babylonstoren (6 Star) – 021 863 3852
• Val d ‘Or Estate Guest House (4 Star) – 021 876 3902
• Le Franschhoek Hotel (5 Star) – 021 876 8900

We look forward to sharing this day with you!

Please note the winery will be closed to the general public on the 3rd of March.

A very succinct comment from a highly regarded local film critic! We participated in the Semi-Soet Johannesburg Premier at Monte Casino (2nd of Feb) and last night’s Cape Town Premier at the Atholl Fugard Theatre. “The best South African movie yet” was the typical response heard from most of the premiere guests. Both events were packed and the guests were in high spirits, mixing with many local entertainment celebrities. The main actors – Anel Alexander, Nico Panagio, Sandra Vaughn, Louw Venter, Diaan Lawrenson, Paul du Toit and Corine du Toit - were at both the premieres where they stayed till the last guests went home.

When we were first approached about Vrede en Lust being the wine farm in the movie we had a few concerns. Not least being that one’s brand could suffer collateral damage in the event of a poor movie. We watched the DVD of Anel and James’s movie Discreet, which convinced us that the risks on the downside were less than the benefits on the upside. We had high hopes for Semi-Soet, but I suspect the movie will do much better than our wildest expectations. Semi-Soet will launch at 70 movie theaters across South Africa on the 17th of February 2012.

Everyone agreed that it was very funny, classy, gripping, professionally produced and shows that Afrikaans movies can be successful without being slapstick and musician centric. Anel and James Alexander from Scramble Productions put their heart and soul into this project and made a great movie on a $ budget that would any producer in Hollywood’s mind! They put together a strong cast backed by a professional production team. Most importantly, they got everyone to believe in what was possible and that the movie would change the direction of local movies going forward.

A big thanks on our side to the cast and crew of Semi-Soet for the great job done and for allowing Vrede en Lust to participate to the extent we do! Thanks also to Janina Otto for all her work with Semi-Soet and the premieres, and to my wife Anneke and her team who worked so hard to ensure everyone had enough wine to taste and enjoy at the premieres. The photo above was taken at the Cape Town event with the cast and some of the Vrede en Lust team.

There is an interesting connection that goes back to 2003, with Corine du Toit, one of the stars of Semi-Soet. Corine was the model we had selected for the very first Vrede en Lust advertisement! We used the ad for about a year, by which time Corine had moved on from modeling to a role in the TV series Egoli. She had done numerous other TV series and movies over the last 9 years. Great to do something together again Corine!

Our wines and marketing have also moved forward a long way since then! To celebrate the release of Semi-Soet, we are launching a very limited release wine – the ‘Vryersvoetpad 2008‘, as featured in the movie. It is a smooth, sophisticated, Merlot dominant, Bordeaux blend. Only 1,450 bottles were produced. Each bottle is numbered and the Vryersvoetpad will be available exclusively from Makro fine wine departments country wide, as well as from our cellardoor and eStore.

You can also visit Semi-Soet on Facebook or follow them on Twitter.

In the winery we have from left to right: Melvin August (cellar worker), Susas Erasmus (winemaker), Anthony Mbombo (cellar worker), Ellen Lubbe (intern winemaker), Danel Morkel (intern winemaker), Baron Willemse (South Africa’s cellar worker of the year 2011), Chris Spurdens (intern winemaker) , Ansonè Stoffberg (assistant winemaker) and Etienne Buys (viticulturist).

The intern winemakers are all South Africans this year. Ellen was the Dux (top) graduate from Elsenburg in 2011. Chris graduated from the University of Brighton in 2009 with a BSc Hons in Viticulture / Oenology. Danel graduated from the University of Stellenbosch in 2010 with a Bsc in Viticulture / Oenology. We sincerely hope they really enjoy their harvest at Vrede en Lust and make a big contribution to the team overall.

No, Susan did not develop a ‘boep’ during the summer holidays, she is 6 months pregnant! Congratulations to her and Arnè ; we hope her 6th full harvest at Vrede en Lust is kind to her and the unborn little Erasmus. With a viticulturist (at Plaisir de Merle next door) as dad and winemaker mother, the little one is really born into wine.

I was lucky to take this photo of 2 Kaapse grysbokke in one of the Cabernet blocks on Ricton this morning. The block is in veraison and I hope they were more interested in the leaves than the green berries!

These are two females but there was also a male deeper into the bloc. It is always great to see them around! Lets hope they do not end in some-one’s sights.

The Chardonnay grapes harvested today comes from a 3.5H (nearly 9 acres) block at our Ricton vineyard. The Ricton vineyard is located next to Babylonstoren, about 2 km up the road from the winery. We expect the Vrede en Lust Chardonnay that goes into Marguerite to start coming in next week.

Ricton is also classified as Wine of Origin Simonsberg-Paarl, with a more uniform, lighter,  decomposed granite soil that is well drained, lighter soils. We also grow Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinotage (for Jess rosè ) and Cincaut on the farm.

We harvest the grapes by hard into plastic lugs. The lugs are emptied into half-ton plastic bins and then transported to the winery. At the winery, the bins are stored under-roof and out the sun. The bins are next rotated into the receiving hopper, where the grapes are weighed prior to release to the automatic sorting machine.

In the sorting machine, the bunches are destemmed (the bunches for Marguerite will undergo whole-bunch press) and the berries sorted. The berries that make it through the sorting machine then gets pumped though the mash cooler and into one of our two presses.

The pressing process takes nearly 6 hours under low pressure. Next the press juice gets pumped into the selected fermenter, in the white wine section of the winery. Susan will decide when to kick off fermentation, which will take place at low temperatures for nearly 3 weeks in order to preserve the more delicate flavours of the white wines.

The harvest starts today with the Chardonnay and will end in early April, probably with the Cabernet Sauvignon from our Elgin vineyard. A long harvest ahead – we hope and pray it will be a great one!

Healthy Grenache during Veraison 26 Jan 2012. Note the sandy soils!

The 2012 harvest is rapidly approaching. We expect to start harvesting the first grapes during early February. The first grapes in are normally Chardonnay from the Simonsberg-Paarl vineyards and Pinotage for our Jess Rosè, also from our Simonsberg-Paarl vineyard. The harvest will most likely end in April, with Cabernet Sauvignon from our Elgin vineyards; thus a long harvest window if the weather does not change dramatically.

At present we are optimistic about both the quality and quantity of the 2012 harvest, but berry sorting will significantly reduce the volume of grapes reaching the fermenters. We had a cold winter in 2011, cool spring and cool early summer. The first real heat waves hit in mid January. While some areas are concerned about rainfall and water reserves, we fortunately received sufficient rains during winter and spring.

Our major concerns at present are re some sunburn damage and the unevenness of some cultivar’s bunches, due to volatile weather conditions in the late spring. The photo on the right shows a Grenache bunch with both raisin berries from sunburn during last week’s heatwave, as well as uneven berry development.

Small unripe berries, premature raisin berries, rotten berries and MOG (matter other than grapes) such as leaves, small pieces of stem as well as a lot of pips, will be rejected during the berry sorting process. The toughest tannins come from the stems and pips, so quality of the resultant wine goes up! See Below.

Pinotage Reject Matter Harvest 2011

The automatic berry sorting machine will have to work hard and earn its keep this harvest. I am sure Susan and Ansone are both very happy that we have the Pellenc Selectiv in place to ensure that raisins and unripe, small berries do not make it into the winery! The quality improvement from the first full harvest using the automatic sorting machine in 2011 has been significant.

We have a few new cultivars and vineyards coming into production this harvest. The first Grenache Noir grapes from the 2.5Ha (6.25 acres) block planted on Vrede en Lust in 2009. The vineyard was planted in a sandy, old riverbed section of the farm, in order to help tame Grenache’s natural vigor. Excess vigor is bad for quality grape production. Susan and Ans will have new options with Grenache as cultivar.

The Grenache vineyard has established itself well and Etienne’s team have had to drop at least 50% of the first crop, in order to help protect the younger vines. We will harvest every second bunch for potential use as rosè component, leaving the other bunches to enjoy extra hang time for red wine production.

In Elgin we have the Merlot and Cabernet Franc blocks planted in 2008, now coming into first production. Both blocks are only 1Ha (2.5 acres) in extent and planted along the warmer, north facing Bokkeveldt Skalie (an ancient shale) slopes. The soils have a 70% gravel content, are very deep and it takes the vines longer establish themselves. Once their roots get down to rock beds with more water retention, they take off. We expect small maiden crops from both these blocks, similar to the maiden harvest of 1.5 tons Casey’s Ridge Cabernet Sauvignon last year.

I am very excited about the quality of the 4 barrels of Cabernet Sauvignon from the 2011 harvest. Bright red fruit, elegant, no green characters and very smooth tannins. If the Merlot and Cab Franc develop in similar style and quality, we will have some really exceptional grapes to work with in the cellar.

There has recently been a lot (two Grape blogs, Pendock, Eedes et al) written about the green character in some Cape Bordeaux style red wines, due to elevated levels of 2-methoxy-3-isobutylpyrazine (or IBMP),  resulting in Cabernet Sauvignon with an excessive ‘green’ character.

Hats off to Charles Hopkins from De Grendel for highlighting this important issue and also for giving the local wine press something really useful to write about. It is going to be interesting to see how winemakers tackle issue this harvest. I suspect lots of IBMP level tests running through the labs right now!

Looking out over the Casey's Ridge vineyard in Elgin towards the Palmiet river and Kogelberg mountains

While Elgin’s early acclaim has come from the high quality white wines from wineries like Paul Cluver and Iona, I suspect that in the medium term, the real game changers will come from Elgin red wines, especially where the right soils have been carefully matched to the correct grape cultivars, clones and rootstocks. Our near-neighbor Shannon, a bit higher up the Palmiet river, has already surprised wine critics internationally with their Mount Bullet Merlot.

The décor looked amazing, with detail in every bit.  The instant cameras on the tables ensured some great memories for the newlyweds and their guests as well.  We adored the couple’s fun loving sense of humour.  May the joy in their hearts and laughter on their lips remind them that this is a sign of a pretty good grasp of life.

Service Providers:

Florist & Décor: Leipzig

Catering: Vrede en Lust

The theme was cheese and wine, which blended well with the wine lands indeed.  Vrede and Lust wish Abigail and Gareth a prosperous future together, and may your love age like good wine.

Service Providers:

Photographer: Jan-Hendrik van der Westhuizen

DJ: Cape Town DJ’s

Florist: Leipzig

Lighting: Something Different

Bar: Urban Tonic

” A long marriage is two people trying to dance a duet and two solos at the same time.” 

~Anne Taylor Fleming

Here is to Leanne and Lynton, and may they never stop dancing to life’s harmonies.  It was a pleasure to host this lovely couple at Vrede and Lust.

Service Porividers:

Minister: Geoff Jamieson

Photographer: Gareth Hubbard

Videographer: KarenGermishuys

Florist: Heike le Cordeur

Music: Simply Strings, Me & Mr. Brown