Alvi’s Drift Wine and Nougat evening
We are delighted to launch The Long Table events at Die Ou Pastorie with the desire to provide a most elegant, exclusive, not-to-be-missed evening. The inaugural dinner featured a bespoke menu and our homemade range of Nougat’s paired with the dessert wine.
Presented by the entertaining Junel Vermeulen
Die Ou Pastorie hosted the Worcester based, multi-award-winning wine brand, Alvi’s Drift, and The Long Table was packed with 29 fabulous guests all ready to sample to creations of winemaker Alvi van der Merwe.
Junel Vermeulen, a Cape Wine Master and respected lecturer and authority on wine hosted the evening. Most of the guests for the evening had checked in to our guesthouse so from the word-go we knew it was going to be a fun-filled, late night and our team was ready for this.
The 11 wines presented on the night were…
MCC wise: Alvi’s Drift Thornfields MCC Brut (Junel taught two very fortunate guests the art of “sabrage” – using a lance shaped sabre-like sword and to rapturous applause, they sliced off the top of the Thornfields bottle without spilling a drop…Always remember this – champagne is to celebrate, sabrage is to commemorate).
White wine wise: Alvi’s Drift Viognier, Chenin Blanc, Chardonnay, Reserve Chardonnay and the ooh-la-la 2014 Albertus Viljoen Reserve Chenin (their flagship white and part of the Ultra Premium Range).
Red wine wise: Alvi’s Drift Pinotage, Shiraz, Drift Fusion (a superb Cape Blend) and the absolutely exceptional and very expensive 2012 Albertus Viljoen Bismarck Red Blend (their flagship red; also part of their Ultra Premium Range).
A bespoke menu was created for The Long Table and for our HAWS Christmas in July. The evening closed out with a fabulous series of sensational bespoke nougat creations by Susan Rothbletz, the owner of Die Ou Pastorie – paired perfectly with the wine farm’s Muscat de Frontignan.
And to conclude, what time did the team finally get to bed? 01:30 — that says it all… Until our next Long Table Event.
About Alvi’s Drift
Alvi’s Drift is a 7000 tonne winery in the Breede River Valley. The winery is owned by the Van Der Merwe family, Bertie Van Der Merwe along with his 2 sons, Johan a lawyer who has been working on the property for 10 years, and Alvi, a medical doctor who has been on the property for 7 years. Alvi’s Drift is the name of the drift near the farm, crossing the Breede river. The Drift was built by Alvi’s grandfather in 1928.
The winery is only one part of a long running and successful business. The property is vast and diverse with a large dairy herd and facilities for the commercial packaging of milk, a cheese making facility, a piggery, citrus, stone fruit, fodder production as well as the 410ha of vines. Johan manages the dairy and piggery and Alvi manages the orchards and winery.
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