Backsberg Summer Picnic Concerts Line-Up

One of my favourite things to do in summer is park-off on a well manicured lawn, somewhere beautiful, with a picnic for two and listen to music – long story short, I love picnic concerts! (Guys: Hint hint* awesome date alert*). Backsberg Estate Cellars has just released their line-up for their summer concert series at the farm.

The Backsberg Picnic Concerts will showcase some of the best musicians South Africa has to offer on their stunning farm near Paarl, in the heart of the Cape winelands. The concerts will take place on Sundays from 28 Nov – 13 Jan. Doors open from15h00 and the concert starts at 17h00.
 
Pack your blanket and some munchies and settle in for an evening of entertainment – if you’re feeling a little peckish and don’t want to lug food along you can also grab a pre-made picnic basket from the farm restaurant.


Pre-sale tickets for the concerts and picnics go on sale on Friday 5 November from www.ticketbreak.co.za and at selected Musica outlets.

Tickets are R85 or R150 with a picnic and R100 at the gate. Children under 12 years get in free, when accompanied by their parents.


Take a look at the full line-up poster below:

For the Love of Vino

Pinotage on Tap is back and this year everyone is talking about the launch of the new vintage of Diemersfontein’s Original Coffee Chocolate Pinotage. The wine festival takes place on Saturday 22 October in Wellington.

On offer you’ll find plenty of great wine and traditional cuisine including butter chicken, lamb tangine, Arrabiata pasta, ribs and classic braaivleis.

This year Albert Frost, Hot Water and Evolver One will take to the stage to entertain the crowd. At the forefront, the Original Coffee Chocolate Pinotage, consistently rated four stars in the Platter’s guide to wine, will be served on tap and paired with chocolate and strawberries.

Tickets are available via Computicket from R285 to R680 per person. Fanatical fans can be the first to get their hands on the vintage with a Fanatics’ Ticket, complete with six bottles of the Diemersfontein Pinotage, for R680.

To Go Where No Wine has Gone Before

While this lovely wine has been around for a little while now, I’ve noticed that few people know about it. It’s the perfect wine for Spring as it’s ultra portable (thanks to it being in a plastic PET bottle). 

Tread Lightly by Backsberg, the first SA winery to declare its carbon neutral status, was launched with the environment and convenience in mind. The wine was the first certified wine sold in the newly certified innovative PET bottle. The Tread Lightly Merlot 2008, Chenin Blanc 2008, and Sauvignon Blanc 2010 varietals are bottled in a lightweight, stylish, PET bottle.

The brand is not only environmentally sound, but Tread Lightly is also so convenient because it is light, shatterproof and less fragile than glass. With its shatterproof design Tread Lightly’s soft bottle delivers all the aesthetic qualities of glass making it a stylish choice for outdoor entertaining at festivals, picnics, boating, beach parties and braais where traditional glass bottles are unsafe or not allowed

Tread Lightly by Backsberg soft bottled wine holds 750ml of wine – the same as a glass bottle – and contains 14 percent alcohol. Packing of beverages in PET reduces energy consumption by 52% vs Glass & Metal. Greenhouse gas emissions are reduced by 55%


The wine is available at Pick n Pay stores country wide and retails at R29 for the Chenin Blanc, R39 for the Sauvignon Blanc, and R49 for the Tread Lightly Merlot.

Soetes and Soup Festival – yum!

My brother lives in Rawsonville and we often head out to his side of the world for a spot of wine tasting. Last year he invited us to a ‘small’ wine festival the town was hosting. He promised us there would be plenty of tasty soup so we packed the car and set off on the 90 minute car trip to try out this mysterious ‘Soetes en Soup’ Festival.

 The festival was a steal with each of our soup mugs costing a measly R10. The traditional tin mug served as our pass for for the rest of the festival. We presented our mugs at each farm we visited and they filled it up with warm tasty soup. Each farm served up their own unique soup recipe – we tried everything from traditional vegetable soup, to biltong soup, to blue cheese soup, to chocolate (!) soup.


Most of the farms also sold traditional roosterkoek at R3 a piece to accompany the soup. While we were chugging down the mugs of tasty warm goodness we headed over to the farms’ tasting rooms to pair it with a selection of each of their sweet wines.

A few farms also offered added extras for festival goers looking for something more. Most offered intimate soup and wine pairings hosted by someone from the farm. This was a great way to learn a little more about particular farms. These added extras were priced between R40 and R80 depending on the farm and included things like witblits tastings and chocolate and wine tasting. We sampled a few Hanepoot Martini’s at Du Preez for R15 (delicious!).

This year the festival is taking place from 22 – 23 July 2011. It’s quite popular so it’s best to get there early so you don’t miss out on any soup (there’s plenty of wine to go around so no worries about that. I will definitely be returning for more soup and wine sampling this year. For more information about the Soetes and Soup Festival click here.