Eikendal Vineyards

Quite a disappointment. The building lacks style, the excuse for a Xmas tree made us wonder why they bothered & the tasting room assistant would probably perform her duties better at KFC. The insights to the wines consisted of “this is nice” & “this is very nice” which by & large they were not. The unwooded chardonnay is good value – and perhaps other wines are worthwhile, but we soon left.

The tasting room assistant was a bit clueless, but the wine made up for that. Loved the Shiraz. Lovely relaxing atmosphere under the trees!

Loved the Helderberg Festival, Sunday was nice in spite of the rain…

Went back first weekend of August for another tasting! What a pleasure to visit Eikendal again… Loving the Sauvignon Blanc.

What good value for money win es.

They make one of the few pinotages which I enjoy!

The wines were all great, and I quite enjoyed the retro feeling – give it a few more years, and will be back in fashion!!

While I enjoyed my visit, I also really didn’t feel the service was great – or personal… I felt a bit underappreciated and neglected, would have bought much more than i did, if I had been properly ‘looked after’. Still didn’t stop me from picking up a case or two of the delish cab franc! Here’s to hoping next time will be even nicer, and that Randall will grace us with his presence…

great wines whats more to say

Revisited Eikendal the other day again to find out what they are planning for the Helderberg Festival. To my disappointment Randall Wicomb and Anton Goosen will not make an appearance this year, but they are definitely making up for it in other ways.

Wang Thai will be there to light up our months with some exotic spices. But not to fear, loads of wine at special prices will be around to cool your mouth. Fun activities like fly fishing will take place, so you can even create your own sushi platter from the days catch. The kids will be kept busy with a jumping castle.

Don’t forget to stop by at Eikendal on the 22-25 of October to share in some fun in the sun.

Eikendal – What a nice find!!! (except for the very 80′s desighn as mentioned by Madame de Wyn!) The service was freindly-ish… I had to ask everything i wanted to know about the wine and the farm. Luckily the wine did the talking for itself!

Had a great find in the quaffer categorie: The EIKENDAL BLANC 2008 @R30.50 – a superb fresh blend of Sauvignon blanc and Chardonnay, witout the problem of the overpowering, somewhat unpleasant acidity some of the Helderberg Sauvignon blanc’s show! This wine should be very popular heading into summer!

In the red categorie,there is one wine that makes the trip worth while… Cabernet franc – Eikendal being one of the few farms that makes this as a ‘cultivar wine’. Their “Classique” 2005 is also worth tasting and is waht the name suggests, classic, elegant and very well constructed!

One tip… I was not impressed with the Chenen blanc’s… They had a very annoying nose that sort-of resembled cat-pee. The palate of the Chenin blanc was beautiful, however. pitty about the nose ;(

Nice wine, nice sparkling wine, nice service, beautiful farm!

It almost felt as if we where on a set of Dallas! Very 80′s! The only thing that would have made it more 80′s? Bananarama or Wham as background music!

They had a big selection of wines and it was mostly easy drinking and the prices were average. Nothing special.

Our host was a bit “half dead” in the beginning, but warmed up towards the end. She showed us some photo albums from previous events that were held at Eikendal. They have a wine festival at Eikendal every year. Previous South African celebrities that performed there included Randall Wicomb and Anton Goosen. Again, very 80′s!

PS: If you don’t know who Randall Wicomb is, good on you! If you are Randall Wicomb, good on you!