Waterkloof

I’ve been wanting to go there some quite some time. Finally did and was well worth it. With stunning views and friendly staff.

Waterkloof is the first winery I visited (with Hugo, My father and my brother) Carol was our hostess with the tasting she explained every little thing we visited on the 4th January 2012. Very nice tasting Merlot bought a few. Waterkloof has got the most beautiful tasting room and the views from the big windows, you have to see it to belief it – its breathtaking!!!

Beautiful setting and impressive architecture. Staff weren’t very informative. All of the six wines that I tried were disappointing – especially the Circumstance Chardonnay, which had a strong smokiness on the palate!

Don’t be put off by the gravel road to the farm.. it soon turns into a nice tarred road into the mountains. Beautiful sight, lovely wines and Carol was just the right hostess for the tasting.

Great wines with views to die for down to False Bay. They produce my favourite SA rose – Cape Coral. Just the job well chilled for a summer’s day. Reminds me of a southern French rose

This is one of my favourite places to visit. Standing on the balcony with a glass of their chilled Cape Coral and watching the birds of prey drifting on the updrafts is something surreal. These wines are are far from the typical and made in the European style. Something that some of our South Africanized palates may not fully appreciate with our coffee pinotages and sometimes overly reductive Sauvignon blancs…

Fabulous location. Amazing Tasting Room. Wines were OK. Would have loved to have had the time to try the restaurant. Not overly impressed by the wines.

I decided to visit this farm since I heard they had the best-looking tasting room around. The tasting room and restaurant shares the same modern, clean, impressive space, making for a nice busy atmosphere. We sat down for a tasting and was informed that you can choose any 6 wines for a R30 tasting fee, which is a bit steep in my opinion. Our tasting assistant simply poured the wines without giving any information about them. However, when I asked a question, she answered knowledgeably. It’s just a pity you have to actively elicit this knowledge. Tasting rooms are great opportunities to educate the broader public about wine and I feel they are missing out on this opportunity by not giving as much information as possible up front.

The wines themselves were pretty decent, I just struggled to justify the slightly high asking prices. I guess they have to recoup the money that went into the fancy building somehow.

Nice modern tasting room with great views. Unfortunatley I thought the wines were very average though for the price. Bit dissapointed

We were treated with in-depth and personal attention. Adored the stainless spittoons that can’t be knocked over – great design like the rest of the interior.

Beautiful setting and building – the other reviews below say it all. We could only taste 6 wines, and not the Waterkloof Sauvignon Blanc (the reason: it was served in the restaurant). What was that all about? Are the wine tasting people and the restaurant in competition with each other?

The very friendly but clearly not well informed tasting room attendant served us 2 Merlot’s (Circumstance & Peacock Ridge); 1 was corked and the other completely oxidised. The newly released Circle of Life white blend under delivered, especially at the price (R140). The 2 available Sauvignon Blancs (Circumstance & Peacock Ridge) were quite insipid and does not compare well to any of the wines from the area.

I don’t know if the promise of the excellent restaurant will be able to get me to re-visit.

Incredible setting. Modern glass and steel structure with magnificent views. Unfortunately not at all impressed with the wines. Tasted 2 Sauvignon Blancs that were so so. The white blend I found insipid and the 3 reds we tasted were so green as to be bitter. The hostess was friendly, but had to ask waiters in the restaurant for info on the white blend. That screams lack of training. Apparently wine is released to the restaurant first, before the tasting room gets it, which seems a little absurd. Might return to sample food in the restaurant, but am not going to be scouring Cape Town to find their wine.

Took my 2 friends from Amsterdam here after our bad experience at Meerlust. Waterkloof never disappoints and we had one amazing tasting once again!

Waterfkloof is also a suburb in Pretoria, and like with the main building on this farm, houses there also struggle to keep their foothold on the slopes of hills. The layout of this farm is something to witness. An if you can drag your eyes away from the neatly kept vineyards and Lloyd-Wright-style main building, you’ll find yourself staring into the distance and realizing what birds should feel like when they fly over this beautiful piece of SA.

We didn’t have the opportunity to pair the wine with food which is the main purpose of their wine production. Instead we got a full tutorial from their white wines to their reds by a humble and extremely friendly wine hostess that seem to know her shi … shiraz!! She also showed us how the farm is laid out and where they get which labels and varieties from. Found the visual aids (expansive view over the farm) extremely helpful.

Still a fairly young farm, it holds a lot of promise and I will definitely come back here once the dust has settled and one can explore and experience its full potential which is already set very high.

Stel jou voor: ‘n Glas kubus wat soos ‘n neet vaskleef aan ‘n bergrand! Indrukwekkend is in die geval ‘n eufemisme! En as dit nie vir die Helderberg Wynfees was nie, sou ons nooit die wynplaas besoek het nie.

Die ingangspoorte vanaf die teerpad verklap niks van die beton-en-glasstruktuur wat in die versteekte vallei op jou wag nie. Geel stootskrapers is steeds stowwerig werksaam op die terrasse rondom die struktuur; binne voel mens klein en omring met drie oop vloere van beton en glas. Ons verwonder ons aan die uitsig wat strek vanaf berg tot see, asook tientalle moderne kunswerke en byderwetse meubels. Waterkloof produseer wyn om kos te komplimenteer. Natuurlik is ‘n vernuftige kokspan gereed vir die wynfees met vars oesters en plaasborde met kase en vleise.

Wyn kan sit-sit-so geproe word, selfs buite op die dek, en Carol kom skink elke dan en wan. En alhoewel baie vlytig met die skinkery, weet sy min van die plaas en wyn self. Sonja kom tot haar redding. Circumstance verwys natuuurlik na omstandighede, vertel Sonja ons. Die Circumstance Sauvignon Blanc 08 is vol sitrus en minerale; die Circumstance Viognier 08 is vreeslik elegant en baie gewild onder ons groep. Die Peacock-reeks is weer vernoem na die vele poue op die plaas. Sonja lig ons ook in van Lady G, die wit ploegperd wat die wingerde omdolwe. Beesmis is ook aan die orde van die dag, en deel van die Biodiversiteitsfilosfie. Ons proe die Circumstance Merlot 06 en Shiraz 07 – die plaas se rooies fermenteer in houttenks. Alhoewel my vriende die Merlot verkies het, was die Shiraz regtig buitengewoon en nog lank op my tong.

Doen jouself gerus ‘n guns en besoek die ongewone, moderne plaas waar die Griekse windgode en die hoë toppe van Schapenberg saamspan om manjifieke wyne te lewer!

Finally went there on sunday for the helderberg wine festival. What a wonderfull setting they have with a spectacular view just a bit too windy though.
Wines here rather young (vines) showing a lot of potential a bit too pricey though for new wines from young vines.

Off to another wine tasting in the beautifull Helderberg with some of my international-winesnob-friends… We decided to go to the latest addition in this region – WATERKLOOF. After a wild 4×4 track in my red Ferrari (hyundai Getz) we finally arrived at their impressive tasting room that is so new it still has that ‘new car-smell’ to it!

The service was just very impressive for such a young tasting room (only opened a month ago). The view was magestic, and so was most of the wines. Elegance and good ballance were phrases that repeated alot in my tasting journal for this farm. It is easy to find their easy-going, all natural phylosophy reflected in the wines. All and all I was thouroughly impressed by the CIRCUMSTANCE range, although the wines are on the expensive side. Try the Viognier and the Merlot – two great varietal examples!

Great job, thanks for the experience… I WILL BE BACK – WITH FRIENDS!!!!

Waterkloof was our final destination in the Amazing Race through the winelands 2009 and what a great place to end of and fantastic day. Luckily we were not the last team to arrive and we celebrate our 4th position (out of 17 teams) with a bottle 2007 Shiraz.

The spitbraai placed the cherry on our amazing experience. The softest meat ever and a delicious Malva pudding! Complements to the Chef!

WOW such a great place to go for a wine tasting, had dinner their as well for the Amazing Wine Challenge!! such great wines, the Circumstance range is just that good too especially the Shiraz 2007 is one to be noticed!
amazing views is absolutely certain except we had some miserable weather so we couldn’t see 1 meter further from the windows… but will be back very soon!! the final challenge in which our team took part in was quite painful, pushing a barrel up hill around the vineyard and back to the cellar… ouch, but such a great experience!!

Wow, the wine farm with the best view ever! Their newly build tasting room is super modern with huge glass windows and a absolutely breathtaking view over False Bay. We very invited to attend the Media launch of the Helderberg festival, that’s taking place in October and boy, what a great time we had!

Our glasses were kept full with fantastic wines. They have the best Chenin Blanc I’ve tasted so far and their Merlot was yum-yum-yum.

I will definitely be back very soon to do an official tasting. This place is really impressive and a must visit!