DELHEIM

Friends, family & Jack Russells wish Papa Spatz a happy birthday!

Wonderlike artikel in Die Burger oor Pappa Spatz wat Maandag 80 jaar oud word: http://alturl.com/oo3wy

Mike and his group of enthusiastic learners

Delheim’s tasting room manager, Mike Talabudzinow, conducted an educational tasting with learners participating in @HotelDirect, a hospitality education, training and staff placement specialist, which is offering a new program designed to increase the knowledge and experience of staff, to improve the quality and efficiency of hospitality establishments and to increase the employability of learners who have completed the course.  For more info on this innovative new program, go to www.hoteleducation.co.za

Catching the spirit while tasting wines in Delheims “Downstairs” tasting cellar

Cheers! From L to R Alex, Tim and Thomas

Well, wasn’t Father’s Day at Delheim a treat!

What a beautiful day!

The weather was sparkling, and the restaurant and tasting room full to overflowing.  We had planned to seat all inside the restaurant and Downstairs tasting cellar as we expected it to be as cold as it has been for the last week or two.  In the event it turned out to be a lovely, warm day, and most everybody went out onto the garden terraces where they lounged for the afternoon drinking in the sunshine, the spectacular view, and of course, the wines!

Hippo aka "The L'ill Beggar"

Hippo, or “The L’il Beggar” as he is affectionately known, did his usual rounds (see photo) and by all accounts was well rewarded (as he usually is, as you no doubt will note from his [*cough*] unique physique.)

Helene van Heerden, Sylvia Coetzee and Bruno Ruegg

So popular was the wine blending competition that we decided to divide it into two categories on the day: “Father” and “Not-a-Father”.

“Father” category winner Bruno Rüegg showed he could blend a red wine too, after having won a white wine blending competition at Delheim in a previous year. His blend of 40% Cab Sauv, 30% Merlot and 30% Shiraz, with its deep berry nose, was perfectly balanced and followed smoothly through on the palate to the finish.

Lots of advice – solicited or otherwise - was being dished out to the blenders, and Dad Keith Munro had lots of help from his son making the “Dad’s Vuvu Vino!” blend, although junior was heard to complain after about an hour: “I’m not tasting ANY MORE wine, Dad!”.

Keith Munro and "helpers"

Delheim’s Sales Manager, Mignon, presided over the competition as judge and jury, and was therefore badgered, bribed and flattered in every way in an effort to sway her – to no avail, she insists!

“Father” category winners:

Best Blend: Bruno Rüegg with “Delesi”; First Runner-Up: Keith Munro with “Dad’s Vuvu Vino!”; Second Runner-Up: Willy Fergussen with “Kloofbosch Red”; Best Name/Description: Marc Joubert with “Marcus – from ‘Mars”, the God of War. Speaks of a history of conquest, achievement and growth. Protector of his (extended) family, Marcus values relationships and cares deeply for those around him. This wine will warm your heart with family and friends, and aims to highlight the things in life worth fighting for!”

“Not-A-Father” category winners:

Winners of best blend "Fraulein": Conrad, Marisa, Sigrid and Phillip

Best Blend: Conrad, Sigrid, Marisa & Phillip (pictured) with “Fraulein”; Best Name/Description: Ruan Beneke with “Ol’ Razlot Nr 40 - A poetic blend of Delheim’s secrets, leaving you with an aftertaste of chocolate, olives and Brenda” [ed. note: Brenda is Delheim’s winemaker!]

From L to R Paul Fourie, Wilma du Toit, Hannelize Robinson, Ruan Beneke, Rudi Scheepers

Special mention goes to the names “Delheim Red Rocker” (David Bell) and “DellaZella” (Byron Hollander).

During the afternoon, soccer tourists started arriving – we received Americans, Brazilians, Spaniards and Portuguese among many others – so there was no let-up as everybody tucked themselves into the cosy Downstairs tasting cellar to watch the late afternoon match.

An immensely enjoyable afternoon – we are so privileged at Delheim to be able to share this lovely old wine estate with you all!

THE DELHEIM TEAM

Father’s Day – 20 June 2010 Set Menu
R130pp (including wine blending competition)

WINE BLENDING COMPETITION
Make the best possible red wine blend by using at least two of the three cultivars provided.
The aim is to make the most complex blend with a lot of different fruit layers and with a big structure
(the wine must be able to last for at least another five years).
Choose your own original name to suit this wine.

A PRIZE WILL BE AWARDED FOR THE BEST BLEND
AS WELL AS THE MOST ORIGINAL NAME.

SET MENU

On table: Delheim’s freshly-baked farm bread

STARTER

Green Pea & Eisbein Soup

OR

Creamy Garlic & White Wine Mushroom Soup

~~~~~~

Main Course

Roasted Venison with a Red Wine Reduction Sauce

with roast potatoes and green beans

OR

Fresh Cape Salmon Trout
with a whipped cream & Madagascar green peppercorn sauce

~~~~~

Coffee & Gabriele Chocolate
____________________________________________________________________________________

Children (under 12):

Kiddies portion of set menu main – R35

Kiddies á la carte menu – choice of:

Kiddies Toasted Panini filled with cheese OR chicken & mayonnaise, served with fresh fruit. R30

Kiddies Bratwurst or Fishcake served with mashed potatoes, tomato sauce and fresh fruit. R30

Come and join in the fun!

Hermanus lays claim to the world’s only whale crier:

Well, Delheim has the world’s only soccer tourist crier!

Botrytis Grapes

The latest ever late harvest of botrytis grapes (or noble rot) at Delheim takes place today (2 June 2010).  Usually, the late harvest is completed by the first week in April.

Delheim’s viticulturist, Victor Sperling explains:  “With cold nights and dry days – but not too hot days – the conditions have been absolutely ideal for the growth of healthy botrytis.  Lots of rain combined with some cold weather prevented sour rot and yielded more botrytis rot.  We have picked twice already and removed only the best infected bunches; the small amount of juice that we have recovered from overnight soaking has been handled like gold!  Today, we pick the last bunches.”

Winemaker Brenda van Niekerk in the botrytised vineyard

Last week, the remaining botrytised grapes were still full and plump with juice; ideally they should be shrivelled and contain a little, but very concentrated, juice.  Delheim decided to risk leaving them on the vine a while longer to perfect the process.  As some rain is forecast, these will now be picked today.

Delheim expects 2010 to be an award-winning vintage. 

Botrytis grapes are grossly unappealing to the eye.  Having progressed from a healthy golden hue to become a mass of brown, shrivelled berries, they are peppered with the fungal growth necessary to create the texture and unique, desirable honey, toast and apricot flavour profile of a botrytised wine.   This was the sight that greeted the legendary Spatz Sperling in 1979. 

Having written the harvest off as basically useless, he ran into Simonsig’s Frans Malan at the post office.  The usual harvest discussion ensued and Spatz lamented his bad fortune: “I may as well write off this vineyard – all shrivelled with botrytis, muggies everywhere and the most awful sweet-sour smell.”  Frans  exclaimed: “No man, Spatz – that is noble rot!  The best base for a noble late harvest wine!”

Not quite believing him, Spatz nevertheless rushed home. The cellar had already closed for the day and the discouraged workers were about to head home. “Sorry, ladies and gentlemen – those vrot grapes we have been worrying about are actually very good. We must go and pick them straight away!”

“The poor grapes looked at me sourly”, Spatz remembers, “but by four in the afternoon, we had gathered about two tons of the most rotten grapes I had ever seen. There was hardly any juice left in them; just an amalgamation of raisin grape nectar. An urgent half-hour phone call was placed to Germany, the home of Edelbeerenauslese, to get the recipe on how to make wine from this gemors.”

As it turned out, this first effort to make a Botrytis cinerea wine reached the market as Delheim Edelspatz, and was a big hit. 

Since then, Delheim has tried to make the Edelspatz Noble Late Harvest every year, weather permitting of course, in bigger or smaller quantities.  Delheim has even experimented with trying to create the ideal climatic conditions artificially, with no success, leading us to the conclusion that these things are best left to Mother Nature.

Latest ever harvest - 2 June 2010

Delheim is absolutely thrilled with the quality and looks forward to a truly superb Edelspatz 2010. There’s a silver lining in every cloud too:  this latest ever late harvest at Delheim will go some way to make up for the poor Sauvignon Blanc harvest earlier this year, when more than half the crop was lost due to wind damage during the summer.

Cape Weaver at Delheim

Our Cape Weaver birds are back, building their characteristic nests in the big tree at the restaurant entrance, to lay their eggs in time to be hatched in spring.  They get their name from their intricately woven nests (the most elaborate of any birds’). They are very gregarious birds which breed colonially, building their nests together for protection, often several to a branch. Usually the male birds weave the nests and use them as a form of display to lure prospective females. One male can have up to eight females for whom he has to build nests – and if any of them is unhappy with the result, she will rip the nest apart, and he has to start all over again!