Yonder Hill

After having driven past Yonder Hill many times, we were happy to see they are now open for tastings on Saturday – and the wine maker was on duty! We had a fantastic tasting, including being able to taste an unlabelled pre-release 2008 Merlot. There’s a very nice, good value for money Y range, the Yonder Hill wines are lovely and also well priced, and then there’s olive oil too. I like the fact that they keep their serious wines back as long as possible before releasing them.

Now open on Saturday’s from this weekend. Lovely tasting with the wine maker. Very affordable entry level range and some very good red estate wines.

Bennie Avenant, die aantreklike wynmaker van Yonder Hill, het ons in die veld ontmoet. Hy het ons gewys waar om te parkeer vir die Potjiekosaand, wat deel was van die Helderberg Wynfeesprogram. Op Yonder Hill se feesprogram was ook olywe, eet, wyne vertikaal proe, Franse kombinasies probeer en daar was ‘n Sondagkerkdiens in die kelder.

So parkeer ons toe in die veld vir die potjiekos; vastrap musiek weerklinkend oor die werf en die plaashonde Zulu en Tokio (?) wat die feesgangers welkom heet. Ons drink salige rooi Cabernet saam met die sonsondergang. Spoedig word daar opgeskep vanuit die massiewe boeppenspot – lekker geurige lamsvleis met botterskorsie, dik stukke aartappel en baie sous. Dan nog ook Franse brood, snoekpatee, tapenade EN ‘n glas rooi wyn. En dit alles vir R30 per persoon! En gepraat van winskopies, Yonder Hill se wyne is ook baie goed geprys en is uitstekende waarde vir geld.

Later word die borde teruggeskuif en word daar in alle erns gedans – tussendeur die dansery met sy verloofde, skink Bennie wyn en kuier saam met die Naude-familie met al die feesgangers. Nie net is Bennie ‘n puik gasheer en wynskinker nie, hy is duidelik ook baie fotogenies – die foto’s op die Helderberg Wynfees se webtuiste getuig daarvan!

Viva Yonder Hill!
Viva Bennie!

I’m starting to feel like a regular at Yonder Hill. It’s always nice if you walk into a place and you are greeted by name. This was Stop Nr 3 on our Amazing Race experience and thanks to @Stephan Steyn, we kicked ass! Dude, you seriously rocked!

After completing our challenge in record time, Bennie did a tasting with us and even provided us with some “drink safe” tips. If you are planning a big night out, drink a teaspoon of Olive Oil to line you stomach. We immediately tried some of Yonder Hill’s Olive Oil and it went down extremely well.

They have some yummy well priced wines as well. Be on the look out for their 2009 Merlot and Shiraz. Great value at around R30 a bottle.

What a great spot to become a regular! see you guys soon

well such a great place to stop as part of the wine challenge!! a very easy going gentle giant of a dog gave us a shy welcoming to the tasting center… eventually the dog started chewing on some big piece of wood in center haha…
well the challenge was very interesting, having to taste 2 wines from the tank, 2 wines from the barrel then 2 wines from the bottles, i must say Madame i think he said we got all the wines right!!
SO I CAN BE PRETTY PROUD about that.

Yonder Hill was one of the stops at the media launch of the “Amazing Race through the Winelands” and we were welcomed by Susan (their marketing manager) and Bennie (their super HOT winemaker)

Our task at Yonder Hill was blind tastings out of the barrels and boy did we have fun! So we failed to taste the difference between the Shiraz and Merlot, but they were both so good that I think we just used it as an excuse to taste more.

Afterwards we tasted some more wines and lined our stomachs with yummy snacks provided by the Yonder Hill team. The snacks were true life savers, cause we still had one more stop before the final destination.

Thanks for a great time guys!