As the cold winter days arrive in full force, there is one bright silver lining for most school children – the winter term break! While drinking hot chocolate and cosying up under blankets watching family favourite movies definitely sounds tempting, we also know that it might lead to some cabin fever after a few days!

That’s why Fairview invites you to bring the whole family to the Fairview farm on Sundays during the school holiday! Once again, we’ve enlisted the talents of Fern from Art4Kids who will be offering kids art activities in the afternoons at the Gallery Studio (just behind the Beryl Back Master Tasting Room).

Starting from this Sunday 17th June (just in time for Father’s Day) and every Sunday during the school holidays, we invite children to take part in a ceramics art afternoon event. Spend the day ceramic painting a unique art piece!

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Guests will be seated at a long table set under a vine canopy where they are encouraged to mingle with those around them over trendy sharing platters prepared and conceptualised by the Goatshed restaurant head chef, SJ Nel. The menu will feature some of Fairview’s finest artisanal produce, including generous servings of its renowned cheeses, breads, olives, charcuterie and homemade preserves. In the spirit of the bounty of the harvest, guests will be able to help themselves to a bottomless supply of Fairview’s new young wines, which they can tap straight from the vat in true farm style.

“Harvest is an incredibly important time of the year for us and it is certainly a time to acknowledge the efforts that go into carefully crafting our wines with elegance and complexity. This year we celebrate the 21st harvest of our Viognier variety for which we have the mother block in South Africa. We ask those who have shared in Fairview’s journey and successes to join us at our new Harvest Table Lunches,” says Charles Back, owner of Fairview Wine and Cheese.

Fairview Wine and Cheese presents this exclusive feast as a chance to explore the Goatshed’s newest offering. Tickets cost R255 per person and can be purchased via Quicket. Tickets will include the lunch and Fairview’s newest harvest wine.

For more information on the Harvest Table Lunch, please contact the Goatshed restaurant on 021 863 3609 or at goatshed@fairview.co.za. For more on Fairview and its wine and cheese products, visit www.fairview.co.za.

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Charles has built Fairview from a family farm to a brand internationally known for its wine, cheese and tourism. His series of wines, as well as his cheeses, are awarded the top local and international awards every year. However, what truly distinguishes Charles as a farmer is his personal involvement in all his farming operations, his drive and in particular his capacity to identify new trends before it becomes mainstream. Charles has the ability to farm with innovation – whether it involves sustainable farming management, empowering employees, brand development or ever-growing visitor experiences.

When talking about his farm life, Charles always shares his tales of growing up as a real farm boy, left to his own devices most of the time, which included running around and exploring the farm. Some say nothing has changed. After all, the Back’s have always been farming folk – Charles Back I came from Lithuania with a passion for farming, buying Fairview in 1937. Decades later, Charles Back II jokes saying “farming is part of my DNA”. Since joining his father, Cyril Back, at the Fairview Wine Company in 1978, Charles has set about doing things differently. His first port of call was introducing Mediterranean grapes to the farm, planting the mother blocks of Viognier, Tempranillo and Petite Sirah in the Cape. He also helped introduce and grow Africa’s first goats cheese company, the Fairview Cheese Company, which has gone on to become every bit as successful as the wine side of the business. The cheese factory also happens to be the first first goat milk factory in South Africa, and was recognized by Carbon Protocol of South Africa for being a carbon neutral factory. By owning all his own land and vineyards, Charles oversees every step in the value chain, allowing him to push the boundaries, be innovative, and most importantly, look after his people. He was one of the first producers to make land and company ownership a reality for farm workers.

Well done Charles – your team is proud! Watch our video about Charles Back and his Fairview story below:

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As a farm, our goal is simple. We want to cut out the middle man, and sell direct to our visitors. Why? Because we are agriculturally-driven farmers, and believe that we should be able to supply our restaurant, deli and customers with as much paddock to plate options as possible. After all, we have all the resources right on our doorstep, and want to be involved in every part of the process. Starting with our chickens.

Not too long ago, we wanted to provide the Goatshed Restaurant with farm-fresh eggs for their breakfasts. So we brought some chickens. And our first priority was to ensure they live a great life, just like all our other animals here on the farm. After all, happy chickens make high-quality eggs. So we’ve given our flock a large space to roam freely – they can happily graze on the grass outside, or come inside the barn for snacks. This is a far cry from the life of a battery hen. We ensure our hens have plenty of space, and at the moment, they’ve taken to digging little holes in the ground where they rest by day, soaking up the winter sun.  Just opposite the chickens, our herd of sheep graze, with our goats and resident ostrich a stone’s throw away for good company.

We love our chickens. We love our goats. We love all our animals. And we hope that that love comes through.
Our eggs are available in the Tasting Room for R15 for 6. Free-range. 100% organic. 100% happy chicken.

Toby the Goat with his best friend, Inkhuku the Ostrich

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With a herd of over 900 goats, we employ conscious farming techniques by collecting their droppings to recycle into our very own farming compost.
As a working farm, healthy soil means healthy plants, which in turn means better quality produce. Our farm fresh compost enriches the soil, sequesters carbon, increase soil fertility and regenerates new growth.

Fairview is proud to be one of the few wineries in the Cape that creates this natural compost from start to finish, ensuring we are involved in every step of the process, and know exactly what goes into our lands.

Our goal is to grow – grow our land, our people and our community. Check out our video to see how the process works:

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The olive oil project started out of a desire to be able to provide our farm workers with regular work, not just seasonal jobs over harvest time. Olives come into picking ripeness just as harvest dies down at the end of March, and with this in mind, Charles and the Fairview team set about planting three Italian varieties of Frantoio, Leccino and Coratina olives at the lower end of our Fairview farm.

Harvesting olives is an interesting practice, requiring our pickers to collect the olives by knocking them out of trees onto cloths laid on the ground. Thereafter, you wash the olives and separate them from the leaves, before crushing the olives and seeds into a paste using large rolling stones to extract an oil.

The result so far has been very successful, with our first few olive oil vintages selling out! We are proud to produce an extra-virgin, cold pressed olive oil made 100% from olives grown on our farm. Our restaurant, The Goatshed, embraces a farm to fork philosophy and using our olive oil is just one added step along Fairview’s journey to be a completely sustainable farm.

Perfect as a treat for yourself or for someone special, this beautifully aromatic olive oil leaves a welcome silkiness on the palate and is complimented by herbal, peppery notes. Pure golden goodness!

Buy now.

See our gallery below for more images during harvest:

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With some events proving to be crowd pleasers last year such as the Shiraz & Shanks and Italian evenings, this year we have decided to offer the same evening on two different dates, to ensure everyone who would like to attend will be able to make it. Both evenings will offer the same set menu.

However, if you’re feeling adventurous and up for something new, the Greek Celebration and Cape Malay Tribute are two such offerings – each evening completely different in catering and style, but equally delicious and indulgent. Then there is the Annual Charity Dinner, which this year will be in aid of The Athlone House of Strength for Abused Women and Children. Supporting us in our cause we welcome Nik Rabinowitz, one of the country’s premier comics, for the evening.

As the Goatshed team is committed to making these evenings legendary, we’ve introduced a new ticketing system on the Fairview website, so that our guests can comfortably purchase tickets from one spot. Just click here to purchase your tickets:

https://www.fairview-events.co.za/

Whether you’re celebrating a birthday, an anniversary or just getting together with family and friends, the Goatshed Dinners are really a perfect excuse to get out for the night. Come escape the cold this winter – we look forward to welcoming you through our Goatshed wooden doors!

See our gallery below for a taste of what to expect:

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In the early 80s, Charles set off on a trip to Portugal. The goal was to visit the cork industry, as the montado landscape of Portugal produces approximately half the cork harvested annually worldwide. Upon one of his visits, he went to Sogrape Vinhos, producer of the brand Mateus – a medium-sweet frizzante rosé.

After his tour of the building, he headed to the beautiful old garden for a moment of respite. Right there, in the heart of the garden, he spotted the original tower and was completely inspired. Returning home, he sketched his idea to his father Cyril, who thought Charles was mad (as normal), but saw the idea had merit. A few months later, the now iconic Goat Tower was built. When asked why the tower is so popular, Charles naturally responds, “because people like seeing animals have fun”.

Soon after, Charles’s young son Jason accidentally left the gate open to the paddock, and so the little group happily roamed among the vineyards, showing rare discernment by selecting some of the ripest berries from the vines – their adventures being the inspiration behind our Goats Do Roam range. The rest is history, and it comes as little surprise that we’ve selected our cheese makers, smile givers and beloved furry friends as our very own mascot.

Tags: Blog, Goats, Newsletters and tagged Charles Back, cork, Fairview, goat tower, Goats, Goats do Roam, Mateus, Portugal, Sogrape Vinhos.

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Here’s a story many have asked to hear, but I’ve shared with few. The story of how I lost my thumb.

As an individual, I’ve always loved being right in the heart of the action – but there are dangers to being a very hands on winemaker.

The year was 1977. It was a mere two weeks before my 21st birthday (and I remember that fact all too clearly). I was a viticultural student at Elsenburg Agricultural Training Institute, and my vacation had just begun.

As a young boy, I’d always spent my free time helping my father Cyril on the Fairview farm, and this time round, he needed my help with bottling. Back then, the bottling line was a little less sophisticated than it is now, requiring more human intervention. As I had done many times before, I took to setting up the corking machine – a semi-automated apparatus that required a plunger to cork bottles. As these bad things tend to play out, I accidentally stood on the foot pedal, and so the plunger came down and crushed my thumb that was resting on the neck of the bottle.

Needless to say, that year was a very wet year, and as it turned out, the 1977 vintage wasn’t a particularly good one. In my opinion, it was actually one of the worst vintages ever, but some may say I’m biased. The good news is that since then, things have improved, and we’ve experienced lots of special vintages. I’d still give life a big thumbs up.

So as always, let’s celebrate the good things – to life!

Charles Back

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