There is a stranger (extraño in Spanish) in the Cape’s vineyards, named Tempranillo. Originally from Spain, Tempranillo now grows in local soils and produces grapes of exceptional quality. We’ve carefully integrated fellow Spaniards Grenache and Carignan – who add spice, fruit and freshness – to help temper this slightly rustic grape variety’s temperamental streak.

Since its release, this wine has been causing waves throughout our Tasting Room, becoming a firm best-seller thanks to its consistent taste, beautiful label and value-for-money. In fact, Extraño was one of our most awarded wines for 2017, receiving a 4.5 star Platter rating, a 2017 National Wine Challenge Top 100 award, and a 90 point score at the Winemag Signature Red Blend Report Awards 2017!

For our final Goatshed Dinner for 2018, we decided to pair a winning wine with a winning cuisine combination. Chef SJ Nel and the Goatshed team carefully curated a menu that will please all palates, while harking back to Catalan-inspired flavours. The event also marks the end of winter, and welcomes in a change of season for warmer weather and later sunsets. Come celebrate – and don’t forget your castanets!

Here is a breakdown of the menu you can expect to enjoy on the evening:

Tapas
Selection of breads, spicy dips & Salami
Paprika chicken Taco cups
Meatballs in Chorizo & tomato sauce
Mushroom Empanadas

Starter
Roasted Linefish & white bean soup

Main Course
Braised beef, potato cake & traditional Pisto

Dessert
Flan de Cafe

***

R325 per person
Wine Pairings included

Click below to purchase your tickets.

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On the 1st August 2017, the second annual Winemag Signature Red Blend Report Awards was held at Villa 47 in Cape Town, with our Fairview Extraño making us proud yet again, winning a 90 point rating by the judging panel. Fairview Winemaker Stephanie Wiid went along to receive the award with open arms.

For this year’s competition, 82 entries were received from 62 producers. These were tasted blind (labels out of sight) by the three-person panel consisting of Christian Eedes, Roland Peens and James Pietersen, scoring done according to the 100-point quality scale. The event called for wines which were “distinctive of their originators” and instead of the usual practice of dividing them into various sub-groups according to style, the judges tasted them as one continuous line-up – the thinking being that the fundamentals of wine appreciation such as complexity and balance should apply when it came to making quality assessments.

This new way of thinking is exactly in line with what Fairview’s Charles Back has always endeavoured to do – planting varieties best suited to our climate and soils – and we are so exalted to be reaping the results of those rather against-the-grain earlier decisions. Made up of a rather unusual Spanish blend of Tempranillo, Grenache and Carignan, our Extraño (meaning stranger in Spanish) is no doubt a bit of a surprise when compared to it’s more traditionally favoured counterparts of Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot. But Extraño has really come into its own this year, winning a spot in the Top 100 2017 competition, a bronze in the Wine Label Design Awards 2017 and now a 90 score for the Winemag Signature Red Blend Report. You shouldn’t mind talking to this stranger! Available online for R100. Buy here.

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Rosé is like the under-celebrated middle-child of the wine world- she really does have her work cut out for her when it comes to proving herself. So, fellow wine starter-uppers and equally vino-curious: let’s chat wine basics about rosé. With August already upon us, South African’s are starting to peak their heads out from under the covers and quite literally, defrosting at the first rays of warm sunshine. And with this glorious change in seasons, comes a change of wine. Goodbye to the dark winter reds, and hello rosé. Traditionally, this is a wine that France does right – especially the South of France – with areas such as Provence being kings of the drink. At Fairview, we just released our latest vintage of Fairview Rose Quartz 2017, made using the finest selection of Grenache, Cinsault and Carignan and showcasing the subtlest shade of pink. If you’ve never been into rosé before, here are our top three reasons about why we think it’s time to re-think pink:

#1: Rosé is found right in the middle between the ranges of red and white wine, making it the perfect ‘inbetween’ of wine styles. In fact, it’s often said to be a warm weather drink, because it has a generally low acidity (no tarty feeling in your mouth) and low alcohol (no heat left in your throat once you’ve swallowed), making it an easy-drinking beverage.

#2: One of our favourite things about rosé is the delicate Pantone colour palette of pink it offers – after all, rosé is just the French word for pink you know. Just imagine your picnic basket, stuffed to the brim with juicy grapefruit segments, cuts of salmon laced across thin melba toast and ruby pink slices of strawberry – that’ll give you an idea of the colour range this wine is capable of.

#3: If you’re ever tempted to buy a rosé, don’t fear that they will all be like that candied sweet drink your great aunt stores in her cupboard for unexpected house guests like you. Rosé can be found as both Dry Rosé Wine and as Sweet Rosé Wine, but this is mostly reserved for bulk production (that doesn’t mean bad either). Basically, just know that rosé can, like any wine, also be available in varying levels of sweetness, so you’re bound to find something you like. At Fairview, we have our slightly more juicier Goats Do Roam Rosé, brimming with strawberry and sweet melon, and then our more serious, dry Rose Quartz.

So there you have it. To us, rosé is the perfect blend of affordable, delicate and easy on the eyes and mouth. Go on, try some – get some rosé in them cheeks this Spring!

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This week, our Fairview Piekenierskloof Grenache was named one of the top 20 South African Grenache Noirs by renowned South African sommelier Higgo Jacobs. In his review, Jacobs writes that “There is no doubt that Grenache is regaining popularity, especially among the trending wine lists and ‘hipster bars’ worldwide” and that “there is a great variety of styles coming from the category in South Africa”.

At Fairview, we have a long history of Grenache, being one of the first farms in the Cape to introduce this Mediterranean-style variety. For our Top 20 pick, we’ve carefully cultivated a home for old Grenache bush vines along the Piekenierskloof mountains where, with extreme weather conditions and poor soils, the high lying vineyards undeservedly reward us with a profound style of wine. Having provided the backbone to some of our finest blends, we are proud to bring this single variety to the fore. If you’re new to reds, this is a foolproof place to start, offering a lighter style wine with plenty of red fruit and soft tannins. It’s also a lovely winter or summer wine – perfectly at home a little chilled!

Our Fairview Piekenierskloof Grenache is available for R115 a bottle on our online shop. Click here to purchase.
To read Jacob’s full review, click here.

Piekenierskloof wine region in Citrusdal

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