Vergenoegd Wine Estate
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Gourmet menus with luxury ingredients
R301, Baden Powell Drive, Faure
Faure: 021 843 3248
Open throughout the festive season
Open Monday-Saturday: 9am-5pm on weekdays and 10am-4pm on Sundays and public holidays.
Duck run 9.30 am daily; duck tours with Mr D 9.45am and 3.30pm daily.
JOS BAKER
A NEW year, new destination and an exciting contemporary vision that allows visitors to personalise products in the historic ambience of Cape Dutch homestead. And take it from me: it’s a satisfactory sensation to take home your own hand-blended bottle of PersonOil.
Where? At Vergelegen farm, a fertile piece of land beside the Eerste River, granted by governor Simon van der Stel to Pieter de Vos in 1696. Pieter named it Vergenoegd, meaning “satisfaction has been achieved”.
In 1782, ownership passed to a Lutheran minister called Johan Georg Lochner, to be re-purchased in 1820 by Johannes Gysbertus Faure, and remaining in the hands of the Faure family for a further six generations. Under the family’s careful husbandry, a wine-making tradition was born – though today Vergenoegd may be better known for its flock of Indian Runner Ducks.
New German owner, Prof. Dr. Dr. Peter Loew, through his family office Livia, is about to change that image with a far-seeing, food-driven vision for the future. He regards food as a gateway to the senses, intricately linked to our experiences and memories, shaping our culture and bringing us together to eat, talk and share. “At Vergenoegd we have selected some of the world’s most evocative food ingredients – wine, coffee, tea and olive oil – to shape experiences for our visitors. Educational, sensory and unhurried, these blending experiences focus on the marriage of ingredients, threading together history, technical skill, sensory response and sheer enjoyment to give visitors a snapshot of something original – something they have created themselves.”
MD Peter Stuart emphasises that the evolution of Vergenoegd will be a gradual one, “It has taken centuries to ‘grow’ this estate and we are sensitive to the heritage that comes with it.” Yet the long, low, restored homestead rooms, furnished with impressive pieces rescued from the loft, lend themselves to tastings. And particularly fascinating are those items that carry echoes of past inhabitants. During Lochner’s tenure, a Dutch minister called Jan Brandes is known to have stayed at Vergenoegd. An elongated centuries-old barometer, with an inscription resembling Jan’s handwriting, now hangs in the wine-tasting room.
So what to expect? A green-lawned paradise for children, complete with daily duck tours. Artisanal picnics and “experiential elements” – ie simple, tutor-led blendings of South African origin olive oils; African origin coffees; and African origin teas. In the olive oil tasting, you perch on a wooden bar stool, soon handling beakers and pipettes to the manner born. At the end of the experience, tasters’ unique blends are packaged and personalised with their chosen labels, to take home and perhaps re-order, as every custom blend is stored in the tasting library. But why not a more practical screw-topped closure rather than a cork?
Next step (be patient) will involve more senses, enabling visitors who do not drink to share the experience. To make the farm in the future a food and flavour destination; paying more attention to the interaction of flavours and fragrances – after all, the rose geranium that launched the French geranium oil industry, came from Table Mountain, and was introduced to France in the 17th century. By 2017, the farm will augment the picnics with a farm-to-fork style restaurant at the lake edge.
Initial projects are already alluring. Every morning at around 9.30am, you will see a battalion of 700 dedicated pest control experts: Indian Runner Ducks, upright, quacking and eager, march out into the vines to hunt for snails and pests. Enjoy the spectacle, then head back indoors, to spend the day tasting and blending your own wine, olive oil, tea or coffee, and enjoy a relaxed picnic on the lawns. There are tables and chairs under the trees beside the water, where you’re enveloped by tranquility and entertained by birdlife. (Next step is a waterbird habitat conservation project).
Passionate chef Ryan Shell, a farm boy at heart, despite his impressive CV, is justly proud of his vegetable garden: the flat-leaved Italian parsley is the largest I’ve ever seen and ideal for chopping, and all greens are freshly picked and liberally used. His is no “thrown-together” picnic but a carefully constructed artisanal assemblage by a devotee of Lego since boyhood. Containers have been cleverly constructed to fit into each other, and to spoon crème brûlée out of a jar is a fun experience.
What’s more, you get a clearly numbered sketch plan of the contents of your basket. From the brass-like cutlery to the containers, you can tick off delights like fresh crusty ciabatta, salmon pâté, truffle and parsley butter, aubergine caviar, red onion and buchu dip, locally sourced meats, cheese and tasty organic chicken breast with corn salsa, and both Caprese and handpicked green salad. Choose a bottle of Runner Duck red or white wine to enjoy with your meal – the white is delightfully refreshing on a summer day.
Before you leave, experience a range of Vergenoegd’s varietals and vintages from 2006 to 2010 in an informative tasting with the option of a cellar tour. This is one of the few farms on the wine route where visitors can taste vintage red wines.
l The Running Duck basket for two is R450. The Driving Duck picnic for two is R395 (no wine included). Duckling Delight for kids contains a fun assortment of healthy snacks and is R125 for lunch, beverage and surprise activity; or R75 for just lunch and drink. Personalised Blending Experiences range from R95 to R150. Wine tastings are R35 for five wines, and vintage reds by appointment.