:: Meerendal Wine Estate - The Home of Good Food and Wine ::

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The excitement levels at Meerendal have been sky high in the last few weeks, with lots of activities in the vineyard, cellar and in our restaurants.
	The late and heavy rains in November with the highest rainfall figures since the early 1960's have been great for the underground water, but gave our farm manager Victor Rossouw and his team lots of headaches. Downy mildew is a fungus that strives under wet and cold conditions and it was difficult to get into the vineyards to complete the spraying programme to prevent this fungus to grow on the leaves and tiny little bunches. Luckily the good old "Cape Doctor”, the famous South Easterly winds, started blowing to dry the soil and the vines and allowing some time in the morning for spraying before it gets too windy. The Cellar has been particularly busy with bottling and labeling to ensure enough stock over the holiday season.


		1. Meerendal MCC Blanc de Blanc 2007 launched 2. Wine Awards 3. Our 350 Vineyard 4. Pinot Noir Vineyard 5. Christmas at Meerendal 2009 6. The Bistro now serving Dinner 7. Holiday Specials at the Cellar Door 8. Meerendal features in two new wine books 9. Visitors at Meerendal 10. What will 2010 bring us?

As announced earlier this year Meerendal is proud to release its first Method Cap Classique sparkling wine this year. After some delays to find all the right packaging material, you can now come and enjoy this marvelous bubbly at Meerendal. It will be released officially on Tuesday 22 December 2009 and is available only from the farm.

Made from 100% Chardonnay grapes, we call it Blanc de Blanc (a white wine from white grapes), a very traditional style in the Champagne region in France. The wine has spent 24 months on the lees in the bottle, giving it those rich and creamy biscuity aromas, with a crisp and fresh aftertaste.

The packaging that we developed, gives that golden yellow richness in MCC that reminds you of the abundance of sunshine in our country. The bottles will be packed in a single box, a three pack and then our special celebration pack that we are sure will surprise you. It consists of one bottle of our MCC in a carton container that allows you to just add ice and water and 5 minutes later you can enjoy this MCC anywhere! This packaging will unfortunately only be available from the end of January 2010.

If you cannot get to Meerendal soon, please order your bottle/s of MCC Blanc de Blanc directly from the Cellar Door Sales, as stocks are limited. It sells for R265 per bottle.


The turntable where the lees in the neck of the bottle is frozen with the use of liquid nitrogen.	The bottle is opened for the frozen piece to be released and the bottle filled to the right level with wine from the same batch.	The cork and wire operation.	The bottles are laid down for labeling.

During the past two months three of our wines received accolades.

At the Veritas Wine Competition our Meerendal Merlot 2006 received a gold medal; Wine Magazine nominated our Meerendal Sauvignon Blanc 2009 a Four star wine and the Meerendal Bin 159 Shiraz 2006 received a silver medal and best in class certificate at the International Wine and Spirit Competition in London.

Caption: Wine writer Juliet Cullinan, MD of the Cape Wine Academy Marilyn Cooper, Cellar Master Liza Goodwin and marketing manager Bennie Howard tasting the award winning Merlot 2006 at the Veritas Tasting in Johannesburg.



From the pictures taken about four weeks ago, you can see how well our Pinotage vines are growing that were planted in August to celebrate the 350 years of SA Wine and the 40 years of Meerendal wines in the bottle. We are pleased to report that every vine that was planted by our guests is growing beautifully and we cannot wait for the first crop in three years time!

And talking about vineyards, here you can see how well the Pinot Noir vineyard that was planted in 2008 has grown. We are eagerly awaiting our first crop in 2011 to make a super red wine. Liza will start experimenting with Pinot Noir grapes from a similar cool climate area already next year.

The events and chefs teams at Meerendal have gone big this year at Meerendal to accommodate as many as possible of our patrons for fabulous food and wine at Christmas. A beautiful marquee will be put up to accommodate our guests for the dinner on Christmas Eve and the lunch on Christmas Day.

If you have not booked, do so quickly as seats are at a premium. And remember that on Christmas Eve there is an added attraction of Carols by Candle light!
Here is the mouth watering menu that will be served on both occasions:

Starters

Sesame crusted Norwegian Salmon with pickled cucumber ribbons,
Green mayo and crisp baby leaves
(Vegetarian option available, please inform us when booking)

Main Course (Buffet)

Garlic and Rosemary rubbed Leg of Lamb, mint jus, Clove studded Gammon, apple sauce,
Chicken and wild mushroom pie, Roasted crisp potatoes, Broccoli and feta quiche with red
onion and rocket salad, Caramelized sweet potato with walnuts and honey, Warm baby marrow,
sundried tomato, olives and pesto salad, Calamari and mussel in a fennel cream sauce with penne
Green Beans, yellow pepper with a balsamic glaze, Greens with spring onion,
mozzarella and baby tomatoes

Dessert (Buffet)

Dark chocolate mousse log covered in ganash and berries, Warm apple crumble with crème
Chantilly, Caramel fridge cheesecake, Traditional trifle and crème angliaise, Milk tart
Coffee or Tea, served with homemade biscuit

R295.00 per adult, R145 per child (between 5-10 yrs)

* Bookings Essential


	Our very popular Bistro Restaurant has opened its doors now for Dinner from Tuesday to Saturday. Some favourites of the lunch menu have been included and the seasonal menu includes items like Carpaccio, Lamb Shank and Duck, with our ever so popular Crème Brulee on the dessert menu. Like always it is better to book to avoid disappointment.

Open times: 9am - 6pm

To end this festive year of celebrations for Meerendal, we will be offering you the following specials:

Duo of Merlots:

2004 (Trophy winner) and 2006 (Gold winner)

R150 – for the two pack

Duo of Shirazes:

2000 & 2001

R150 - for the two pack

Quartet of Prestige Wines:

One bottle each: Bin 242 Sauvignon Blanc, Bin 159 Shiraz/Heritage
Block, Pinotage and Chenin Blanc Natural Sweet

R500 – for the 4 pack

Buy 12 bottles or more and get 10% discount – you can take a mixed case of wines or just your favourite!

* all specials will be valid until 31 January 2010.


We are proud to have been included in two prestigious wine books that have been published in the past two months: - Cape Winelands in Style - The Essential Guide to South African Wines – Terroir & Travel. Both these books are available at our Cellar Door and make the ideal gift for people interested in wine, beautiful photography and travel in the wine lands.



Visitors to Meerendal during the Season of Sauvignon in October had great fun when some came to visit by helicopter. base 4 helicopters provided a heli service between some of the farms in Durbanville and the guests could taste a variety of Meerendal Sauvignons of different vintages with Liza and Bennie followed by lunch at the Bistro.
	A group making ready to fly off to the next farm.	These guests did not go away empty handed!!

There is no perfect answer to the question what 2010 will look like in the wine industry, but what we do know is that South Africa will be on a roll in 2010!

We at Meerendal have been very positive about the FIFA Soccer World Cup from the start, because the Television, Radio and Print publicity alone will benefit our country enormously. So if you transfer that publicity – with figures of 300 million people to watch/read about the tournament AND South Africa – into our wine industry, we believe it is the biggest advertising campaign ever ….and we don't even pay for it!

And add to that the 450,000 visitors that will be in South Africa to eat and drink, then it is clear we are going to be having great business in the normally quiet months for our industry. And, yes, not all of them will drink products of the vine, but let us say that half of them do so…then you have possibly more than an extra two million bottles of wine that could be sold. It however places a huge responsibility on us as the suppliers to hotels, restaurants, liquor shops and supermarkets to ensure that there will be stock available and more important that the stock can be available for distribution at short notice and specially over weekends.

An added bonus will be the thousands of visitors that will be staying in and around Cape Town that will be looking for entertainment on non-match days. They will flock to the wine routes for tastings and food at our wineries. All our the staff will be fully trained to handle these visitors, to make them permanent future consumers back home and to let them feel that special South African welcome.

Thank you for visiting us in the past years. We are looking forward seeing you back soon.

All our best wishes for a Blessed Christmas and a wonderful New Year.
The Meerendal team

Tel: 0027 21 975 1655 | www.meerendal.co.za | info@meerendal.co.za