Helderberg Wine Route
Rowing across a lake towing a barrel is one of the challenges.
The Helderberg Wine Route, lying between Somerset West and Stellenbosch is apparently the oldest in the country. However, between Somerset West and Sir Lowry’s Pass Village lie some lesser-known farms.
Tourism authorities have put together an “amazing race” with five of these wineries. Four teams of four meet in the Somerset West Tourism Centre’s car park at midday, where you are given a briefing, water, a map and cryptic clues to get you to your first farm.
Our first was Wedderwill, a new producer of completely organic wines who sell their shiraz in an unusual square bottle. The winery is modern but blends into the environment. They don’t produce large volumes but their wines are top notch. The shiraz, bordeaux blend and the sauvignon blanc were all sensational.
The task set by the vineyard was also a jol, especially for me as I just watched this one. Two of each team of four rowed a boat out into a little lake dragging a wine barrel, round a buoy and back to shore. The rest of the team needed to eat a large bowl of olives while the clock ticked. Jo and Pete took on the rowing whilst Meryl and I dented the olive bowl. Our time, according to the farm manager, was a good one!
Hurry, hurry grab the next clue and be off to what we worked out was Mount Rozier, a farm halfway back to Somerset. There in relays we had to run with a full bottle of wine balanced on an open hand! Time penalties were made for spilling, dropping and the like. Once we completed the course we all had to spit wine corks into a bucket against a stopwatch! Again we fared well and felt confident. The wines here were not my favourite but the initiatives of helping the environment and the local kids are fantastic.
Our next clue led us to Onderkloof, a rustic farm where they had prepared a quiz with the answers dotted around the premises. It was great fun and their wines were excellent. The winemaker was on hand to give clues and insight into his delicious creation. They fortunately also served cheese-and-biscuit platters which couldn’t have come sooner for our team of swallowing connoisseurs.
From here it was a speedy drive through to the incredibly impressive Waterkloof estate. Not a cent has been spared here and it shows. The building is near completion. Here we had to guess what varietal we were drinking, with the fine wine served from real crystal glasses! We took in the exquisite views down onto False Bay. Once it’s complete this will be an extraordinary venue for any function.
The next clue took us off to the last farm, Idiom. We met our hosts up on a koppie, where the estate has a sort of lapa looking back toward Somerset West - we never saw the actual winery. Here we shot various targets with catties and had to run up to a lookout deck to have a team photo before the clock was stopped. They had paired their wines with fish and biltong and because it was the last stop and we the last team they were very generous in their portions! The wine was great – not cheap, but none of the others bar Mount Rozier were either.
After wrapping up there we headed on back to Mount Rozier for the awards ceremony. We believed we would win! We were the last team in and the wine was flowing, no worries though as only the times from the tasks counted, and they don’t encourage bad driving out there.
Drum roll and 4th, 3rd, we are still in the running… oh no the yellow team have won it with us about four minutes behind! The team spirit was fantastic and many more bottles were shared after the ceremony. Fortunately our driver was rather responsible and was drinking water. The rest of the team departed for Cape Town in very jovial spirits!
A great day out and well done to the Somerset West / Helderberg / CT tourism guys and the farms that participated. I will certainly be visiting them all again!
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