Visiting wine farms in autumn is really ideal, as the major hubbub of the season is over and there is definitely a slower pace, and calm walm days abound.
Asara Wine Estate and Hotel is on the Polkadraai Road just outside Stellenbosch, and they not only make wine, but have a 40-roomed hotel, 2 restaurants, a deli and the Sansibar Bistro, which has become quite famous for its massive collection of gins.
As my pre-lunch drink, I enjoyed a new local craft tonic called Barker & Quin (Hanneli van der Merwe, brainchild and developer of this stunning product) with a Karoo Gin called Six Dogs.
It was a busy bottling day at Asara when I visited, and I believe the much of their wine is now being exported to China, with a possible new market opening up in the USA.
One of my favourite of their wines is the Avalon, which is made in the Italian Amarone style, with the stem of each bunch of grapes being pinched, to limit any further liquid reaching the grapes thus intensifying the flavour. This is of course very labour intensive and so is a tad pricey! This Avalon wine can be delivered to your door if you like - see more HERE
We tasted through most of their Speciality Selection and ended off with a most delicious sticky - their Vine-Dried Sauvignon Blanc.
I can't wait to try it with a good curry, never mind waiting to have it with dessert!
There are a number of beautiful autumnal but sadly virused vineyards on the farm, and quite an aggressive and costly plan to remove these and plant the right varieties over the next few years.
The energetic GM Pete Gottgens spends a lot of time pounding the pavements getting Asara wines on the shelves, and has turned around the hotel's occupancy considerably since his arrival in 2011. They have a new range of wines I was unaware of, called Pickled Fish, which is the most peculiar name for a wine brand but then again, Yellow Tail seems to sell!
Danielle le Roux joined Asara for the 2016 harvest and her young energetic wine-making team are getting to grips with the farm and the cellar, which must be one of the very few in the winelands which has beautiful chandeliers overseeing the barrel cellar!