The Old Wagonhouse

The Old Wagonhouse

Monday, June 20, 2011

What a Festival

The Port festival of 2011 was a huge success.  Thanks to all participating cellars and an organizer like Nita Bailey and the Husband of the Year and sort of headmaster of the festival Tony Bailey.  Thanks to both of them for hours and hours of phoning,  printing,  talking and driving this ended up being one of the most successful festivals and also the best organized. 

As most of you know by now nearly all the little food shows - Cheese and Port,  Chocolate and Port,  Francois Ferreira Bollywood version of South African cuisine,  Mysteries of Port,  etc. - were sold out.  And everybody enjoyed each of these encounters with the food and port pairings.  Thanks here to presenters and all the staff envolved with these little 'productions'. 

Withoek did really well.  Our wines were not sold out so please do still support us but we did a lot of marketing and new faces were introduced to our little cellar.  Thanks for those that helped us. 

The idea of the port at the different restaurants also helped a lot.  I think it really created a sort of town festival feeling.

Thank you also to all the visitors which took the time to come to the festival and enjoy our lovely local drink.  There was a great atmosphere around the festival grounds and good quality people enjoying themselves without any overcrowding. 

Now the greatest mystery of all:  WHEN IS THE NEXT FESTIVAL?  Keep your eyes on this space. 

Thanks again to the whole community contributing to the successful festival. 

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

The Festival kicks off!!

It finally arrives.  Before anything I want to thank my good neighbour Nita and Tony Bailey for an excellent festival.  I can predict that with more certainty than the weather of this little town of ours.  It just started to drip again. I am not complaining because nature really played a big role in making this festival a success.  The veld is just green with new growth and looks lifely again.  The dam will overflow in this weekend after last weeks good rain.  (by the way Withoek measured 65mm).
This afternoon I attended the lunch which was part of the ABSA sponsorship for this festival.  It really was an eye opener with lots of info.  The short and sweet of the story is:  Invest in Agriculture - it is the golden era for agriculture world wide.  Aparently our net income is 41bn rand the last year.  A big amount.  I haven't pocket in but think the wheel must turn.  The sad news is that the rand will get stronger and it will end at about R6,30 at the end of the year.  It will aparently never go over R7,00 again.  VIVA MALEMA.  I must try and help it if I can.

Withoek spend some time on the cosmetics this winter.  We painted the old 'waenhuis',  tasting room.  You must come and have a look.  The interior also got a bit of a lift.  Our new port:  The Geyser Vintage 2010 will soon be on the market.  It will be sold in the smaller version 375ml bottle and is a great gift.  It will be sold for R40 a bottle. 

Well Chrissie will be enjoying the Cheese,  Chocolate and Bollywood shows tomorrow.  I will be presenting the Mystery of Port also tomorrow.  On the three days we will run a blindtasting competition which will be free and you can win an Calitzdorp port and wine hamper.  So do come and try and be a expert.  Also will be on show some of the great Port from outside our area.  Some of the members of the SA Port Producers association.

See you at the station

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Winter arrives!!

The colder weather really hit us this week with temperatures dropping.  This is excellent for the trees and vineyards.  The buds need enough cold units to go through their rest period and be ready to bud for the next season.  To work it out the rule of thumb is usually the average of the days temperature (Min add Max divide by two) to be under 9 degrees Celsius.  This must continue for 5 or more consecutive days.  If it does not happen we will see uneven budding in Spring and this leads usually to uneven ripening of the fruit and thus lesser quality and difficult season. 
The other excellent thing about the cold and more precise the frost.  It helps to keep down the insect numbers.  Some of the insects die and or the eggs not being protected does not hatch.  Leading to a lesser concentration of insects. 
I also want to encourage neighbours to any farmer with a few nice fruit trees in their town garden to try and spray for fruit flies this winter.  The population of fruit flies in the Calitzdorp region was exceptionally high.  The flies usually goes to hide in trees with leaves and other hide outs in the winter because of the lack of protection in the cultivated orchards.  Their is a lot of different products that can be used and the best is to get the advice of the nearest Landmark. 
Well at Withoek we are not going to have an auction.  We are just cleaning up our act a bit.  Oom Apie is buys repairing the tractors one by one  and it seem to go well.  In the process we also spray them so that they also feels a bit better. 
The tasting room also got a new coat of paint to be ready for the Port festival and we are looking ahead to another successful one.  Thanks to Nita and Tony in particular for their hard work and dedication to this local festival.  We are hoping that the success of this one might lead to it being held annually again.  I thing the direction of lifestyle with a lot of emphasis on food type of entertainment.