Thursday 22 September 2011

This site will be updated on 30 September 2011

WINE LOVERS can prepare for a great new experience at the Round the Rock Festival during which you can taste the young wines of the current harvest season at Paarl wineries.

Activities at the 11 participating cellars start at 09:00 and continue all day - so expect a unique experience at the height of the harvest.

Visitors can taste the unfiltered wines, fresh from the tank.

The organisors hope this will be the first step to launch a tradition similar to the Federweisser (white feather) festival celebrated from September to October in parts of Germany, Austria and Switzerland when unfiltered wines are tasted at the cellar, still bubbly and cloudy from the fermentation process.

Part of the tradition is the slice of warm onion tart which goes with it. A number of the wineries will serve this delicacy with the tasting of the young wines.

Also available will be the mosbolletjies which are traditionally part of the South African wine harvest.

The participating wineries who will each present an action-packed day for the whole family are Boland, Fairview, KWV, Landskroon, Nelson, Rhebokskloof, Ridgeback, Seidelberg, Simonsvlei, Under Oaks and Windmeul.

Visitors will be able pick the grapes, press them with their feet, see how the yeast is rehydrated and experience what harvest-time in the cellar is all about.

There will be a vat filling competition, quad bike trips, horseback rides through the vineyards, and all sorts of arts and crafts to buy.

There will even be 20 minute flights around Paarl Mountain in Tin Lizzie, a fully restored 1942 Boeing Stearman.

Those who simply want to relax can enjoy live music, food and wine. There are picnic baskets, three course meals, French wine and oysters to enjoy.

Another highlight is breakfast with singers Luna and Valiant Swart at Rhebokskloof.

Each winery will ensure that there are enough activities like paintball for the youngsters while the parents taste the young wines (entry for kids is free).

Entry tickets are R35 at any of the participating farms. Additional coupons can be purchased on site.

For R20 you can buy a carafe of young wine, which will be refilled for R10. For enquiries, phone 021-8­63-4886.

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