We stopped at this amazing coffee shot and little shop.... This is the baked cheesecake with chocolate cake in meringue...totally delish!
Sunday, 23 November 2014
Potbelly pantry in Stellenbosch
Got dragged out the house after 5 days in bed with a strained ligament in my foot, and taken for a bit of fun on crutches in Stellenbosch.
We stopped at this amazing coffee shot and little shop.... This is the baked cheesecake with chocolate cake in meringue...totally delish!
We stopped at this amazing coffee shot and little shop.... This is the baked cheesecake with chocolate cake in meringue...totally delish!
Thursday, 06 November 2014
A finely tuned event
Happy Thursday all you beautiful people!
This post has taken a few days cause man, what a weekend it was. And what a mission it was to put it all together and put it down on....pc...lol. There was so much great stuff and just so much fun that explaining what you, you silly people that didn't make it, missed at Tuning the Vine 2014.
This past Friday morning, when my alarm went off, my eyes shot open like a kid on Christmas morning. Today was here FINALLY. Tuning the Vine weekend had arrived. I'm actually not too sure why I was that excited, but something felt different about this festival and the morning at work crept
slowwwwwly towards that magic 12h30 when I got to leave and head off to opening day and the media event that came along with it. I had gotten really lucky when last minute I was invited to the media opening and my boss said YES, go! (love my job)
Tick tock tick tock ........TIME TO GO!!!!
I won't go into the Friday much as that was an amazing wine frazzled hangover inducing wonderland, where new friends were made and old friends caught up, and we all learned things about wine.
The media were spoiled to lunch, wine, a wine tuning with the most wonderful pairings, and lots and lots of wine and bubbly, whiling Friday afternoon away watching the most amazing view
More important was Sunday, when I took my little tasting team along, made up of 2 x wine virgins (Sean and Riaan) and 2 x wine sluts (Kim and Nicole) and me.........of course....lol.
Tuning the Vine was held at The Lookout, a multi purpose function venue just between the V&A Waterfront and Granger Bay. The set up was clean and easy going, the view was fantastic and the weather just perfect.
What impressed us (and there was a lot that did that!) was just how friendly and helpful everyone was, how organised the event was, how much REALLY good wine was on show and how clean the venue was.
From the moment you walked up to the entrance, you felt welcome. The venue was kept clean by what we surmise were invisible pixies..... cause there were no bins yet whatever you put down just went *poof* and no rubbish.... magic.
The friendly welcome our group got at every wine farm we tried was impressive, but the ones that really stood out were Haute Cabriere ....the wine ladies were the friendlies ever and had us rolling with laughter. We all walked away promising to come visit the farm, and meant it.
Neil Patterson was informative and friendly with wonderful wines, with NO HEADACHE! (yes, it's true. His wines are something special and you need to go make your acquaintance)
Something that we commented on, was the lack of, well how does one say this, crappy wine farms. Look, there is a place for everyone somewhere but when I'm paying R150 to get it, I want to spend my free tasting tickets on good wine. Too many festivals have the big names and then a small group of, and lets be honest here, not so great boutique farms that have ok wines. What we loved was that every single stand we went to (and believe me, we tried em, a lot of em lol) had great wines.
Small or large the wine was quality as were the ciders on show and the non alcoholic stands such as Vigo, a fairly new to SA product from Namibia Breweries.
Outside we had lunch from the food vans, each trying something different. Food was reasonalbly priced and payable in cash. I had a pork belly wrap which was MASSIVE and filling for R50.
We tried some Dutch chocolate coffee from Terbodore, which can only be described as an orgasm in a cup.
The bar in the front section was run by a lad called Owen O'Reilly, Reg Manager of
Barcode mobile Bespoke bar services. What a nice guy with the nicest barmen. And the cocktails....drool....
Reasonably priced and fantastic quality, Nicole, Kim, Riaan and I had one. We all agreed (considering how much we love cocktails) that Owen and his boys did one hell of a job!
I had the Monis Medium Cream Cobbler which was mouthwatering and so refreshing.
And we can't forget the free spray on tattoo's that caused much laughter. Run by two brilliant guys, we giggled and laughed and felt like kids again, each getting a tattoo.
I for some reason, at this point, forgot to take pics of all the tattoo's....must have been the heat, giggle.
There was only praise from the wine virgins and wine sluts alike.
Unlike other pretentious festivals that the wine virgins had attended in the past, at this one they didn't feel unwelcome due to their lack of wine knowledge. Both were impressed how the farms tried to teach them a little, in good humor and worked hard to find something they would like. They never felt like the red haired step cousin that was just...there.
From the girls, we loved it! It was easy going with GREAT wines all round. There was a choice of bubbles (all good and a nice choice), deep reds, light whites, and rose' to suit all pallets. We were treated like VIP customers (great customer service ALL round) and didn't find one bad wine anywhere.
ALL 5 of us agreed that we can't wait for next years TtV just to get to go again. Now that's impressive.
Neil Patterson, giving us a tuning:
A massive well done to the organizers on their first TtV. If this is the beginning, next year will be mind blowing. A very very serious achievement for putting on an ,AMAZING day (weekend), we are still talking about how much we enjoyed it.
We got to TtV at 12, when it opened and left well after it closed at 5pm, having sat outside chatting well after 6pm. This had to be the best wine tasting event any of us have been to, and even our 2 wine virgins have nothing but praise. We left at the end of Sunday tipsy, smiling, clutching our free glasses, our bought wine, shoes in hand, and happy memories....
Cheerioooo for now everyone. Enjoy the rest of the pics and seriously, next year make sure you get your butts to Tuning the Vine....or else, I may have to tune YOU, lol. Byeeeee*wave*
xx Moo
This post has taken a few days cause man, what a weekend it was. And what a mission it was to put it all together and put it down on....pc...lol. There was so much great stuff and just so much fun that explaining what you, you silly people that didn't make it, missed at Tuning the Vine 2014.
This past Friday morning, when my alarm went off, my eyes shot open like a kid on Christmas morning. Today was here FINALLY. Tuning the Vine weekend had arrived. I'm actually not too sure why I was that excited, but something felt different about this festival and the morning at work crept
slowwwwwly towards that magic 12h30 when I got to leave and head off to opening day and the media event that came along with it. I had gotten really lucky when last minute I was invited to the media opening and my boss said YES, go! (love my job)
Tick tock tick tock ........TIME TO GO!!!!
The media were spoiled to lunch, wine, a wine tuning with the most wonderful pairings, and lots and lots of wine and bubbly, whiling Friday afternoon away watching the most amazing view
More important was Sunday, when I took my little tasting team along, made up of 2 x wine virgins (Sean and Riaan) and 2 x wine sluts (Kim and Nicole) and me.........of course....lol.
Kim, the Moo (moi of course), Riaan, Sean and Nicole
Tuning the Vine was held at The Lookout, a multi purpose function venue just between the V&A Waterfront and Granger Bay. The set up was clean and easy going, the view was fantastic and the weather just perfect.
What impressed us (and there was a lot that did that!) was just how friendly and helpful everyone was, how organised the event was, how much REALLY good wine was on show and how clean the venue was.
From the moment you walked up to the entrance, you felt welcome. The venue was kept clean by what we surmise were invisible pixies..... cause there were no bins yet whatever you put down just went *poof* and no rubbish.... magic.
The friendly welcome our group got at every wine farm we tried was impressive, but the ones that really stood out were Haute Cabriere ....the wine ladies were the friendlies ever and had us rolling with laughter. We all walked away promising to come visit the farm, and meant it.Neil Patterson was informative and friendly with wonderful wines, with NO HEADACHE! (yes, it's true. His wines are something special and you need to go make your acquaintance)
Small or large the wine was quality as were the ciders on show and the non alcoholic stands such as Vigo, a fairly new to SA product from Namibia Breweries.
Outside we had lunch from the food vans, each trying something different. Food was reasonalbly priced and payable in cash. I had a pork belly wrap which was MASSIVE and filling for R50.We tried some Dutch chocolate coffee from Terbodore, which can only be described as an orgasm in a cup.
The bar in the front section was run by a lad called Owen O'Reilly, Reg Manager ofBarcode mobile Bespoke bar services. What a nice guy with the nicest barmen. And the cocktails....drool....
Reasonably priced and fantastic quality, Nicole, Kim, Riaan and I had one. We all agreed (considering how much we love cocktails) that Owen and his boys did one hell of a job!
I had the Monis Medium Cream Cobbler which was mouthwatering and so refreshing.
And we can't forget the free spray on tattoo's that caused much laughter. Run by two brilliant guys, we giggled and laughed and felt like kids again, each getting a tattoo.
I for some reason, at this point, forgot to take pics of all the tattoo's....must have been the heat, giggle.
I don't know about the others, but I managed to nurse my tattoo until Tuesday night, until sadly having to wash the last of it away.
There was only praise from the wine virgins and wine sluts alike.
Unlike other pretentious festivals that the wine virgins had attended in the past, at this one they didn't feel unwelcome due to their lack of wine knowledge. Both were impressed how the farms tried to teach them a little, in good humor and worked hard to find something they would like. They never felt like the red haired step cousin that was just...there.
From the girls, we loved it! It was easy going with GREAT wines all round. There was a choice of bubbles (all good and a nice choice), deep reds, light whites, and rose' to suit all pallets. We were treated like VIP customers (great customer service ALL round) and didn't find one bad wine anywhere.
ALL 5 of us agreed that we can't wait for next years TtV just to get to go again. Now that's impressive.
Neil Patterson, giving us a tuning:
A massive well done to the organizers on their first TtV. If this is the beginning, next year will be mind blowing. A very very serious achievement for putting on an ,AMAZING day (weekend), we are still talking about how much we enjoyed it.
We got to TtV at 12, when it opened and left well after it closed at 5pm, having sat outside chatting well after 6pm. This had to be the best wine tasting event any of us have been to, and even our 2 wine virgins have nothing but praise. We left at the end of Sunday tipsy, smiling, clutching our free glasses, our bought wine, shoes in hand, and happy memories....
Cheerioooo for now everyone. Enjoy the rest of the pics and seriously, next year make sure you get your butts to Tuning the Vine....or else, I may have to tune YOU, lol. Byeeeee*wave*
xx Moo
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