Experience the magic of The Tumbling Strawberry at Franschhoek Uncorked this weekend!

CC attribution itsray on Flickr

Enjoy a glass of Pierre Jourdan Belle Rose with a ripe strawberry tumbling in the bubbles for R20 per glass. Or sip away on a glass of Pierre Jourdan Brut, Pierre Jourdan Brut Sauvage and Pierre Jourdan Blanc de Blancs for just R20 a glass.

See you this Saturday!

Join us at Franschhoek Uncorked, this weekend, and experience the naked oyster!

CC attribution swamibu on Flickr

Four oysters and a glass of Brut Sauvage [or any other Pierre Jourdan bubbly - excluding the Pierre Jourdan Reserve] for just R50.

10 oysters and a bottle of Pierre Jourdan Brut Sauvage [or any other bottle of Pierre Jourdan bubbly excluding the Reserve] for just R195.

Join us this weekend, at Haute Cabriere, for Franschhoek Uncorked!

Celebrate in style with us, naked oysters and Pierre Jourdan Cuvée Brut Sauvage.

On Saturday, the 4th of September we are open from 10am to 3pm. We’ll be closing two hours early because our Tanja will be getting married in the Cabriere cellar later in the evening.

On Sunday we are open from 10am to 5pm.

I think that my brother Tamo, our Cape Town Haute Cabriere ambassador, summed-up this past Bastille festival best … ”it was wild, it was fun and it was the most celebratory Franschhoek Bastille Festival ever! There were moments when I felt as if I was back in France in Springtime. Add to that the feeling of celebrating Madiba’s birthday and it was an experience impossible to beat!”

CC Attribution Franschhoek Wine Valley on Flickr

In fact over the weakend we enjoyed terrific Pierre Jourdan sales and, as one friend remarked, it looked like every Bastille visitor had a bottle of Pierre Jourdan in her / his hand.

If you were drinking Pierre Jourdan or Haute Cabriere this Bastille thank you for your support. If not, never fear, there is always next year!

We know that one of the most upsetting things about living in JHB is the fact that Haute Cabriere is a whole two hour flight, and an additional one hour drive, away.

We don’t know how you do it!

It probably helps that the Haute Cabriere Chardonnay Pinot Noir is available through Woolworths (and a few other places) and the Pierre Jourdan range of Cap Classiques can be found at most wine outlets. But, obviously, we know that this isn’t enough because it doesn’t give you the chance to interact with the charm and personality that makes Cabriere so memorable (and exceptional).

So we’ve decided to bring the charm to you! Yes you heard right, this year we are once again exhibiting at JHB WineX. From the 27th - 30th of October pop in to the Pavillion (at the Sandton Convention Centre) and you’ll get to taste all our great Franschhoek Wine and Cap Classique and - of course - meet Takuan von Arnim.

Oh and, if for some serious reason, you can’t make it you can always order yourself a case, or three, from the Cabriere online store. There really is nothing quite like buying wine from the comfort of your couch.

Back in the early 80’s Franschhoek wasn’t the premier destination that it now is. There are few people who are still key players in the Franschhoek valley that can attest to that fact.

Before there was a booming tourism industry this beautiful village was sleeping-beauty. One that we, at Haute Cabriere, like to think we woke with a kiss from the gorgeous Pierre Jourdan Cap Classique.

This is good trivia to know, especially considering that the Annual Franschhoek Champagne and Cap Classique festival is just over a month away. As far as Franschhoek is concerned we will be the oldest (and best looking) producer of Franschhoek Cap Classique at the festival.

The weather is just glorious and warm! I feel Summer coming on, and not a moment too soon. There is only so much rain a person can take.

We’re soon going to start discussing the 2009 Franschhoek Champagne and Cap Classique Festival. We’re planning on conducting a full online tasting of our Pierre Jourdan range - and I think we might even get my father (the famous Achim von Arnim) to conduct the tasting. It’s been a while since he’s appeared on the blog and I think you could all do with a healthy dose of use von Arnim men.

While you wait for us to get going with our Cap Classique tastings you can watch this little piece I put together. It’s a different piece of the farm, one that the majority of visitors never get to see.

We had a wonderful Franschhoek Uncorked. The Pinot and Pita was exceedingly popular and the Strongest Arm competition was a whole lot of fun.

Luckily for the competitors, and the ultimate winner, the Haute Cabriere team manage to convince me not to take part - apparently it just wouldn’t be fair.

Enough about Uncorked because I have exciting news - I’ve put together a tasting video for the 2006 Haute Cabriere Pinot Noir. So pull out your bottle of Cabriere Pinot, pour yourself a glass and join me.

Blow off work, Mondays are over-rated. Come on, you know you want to.

We’ve been having a bit of a problem with our new video camera. It’s a flip - which we’re very excited about. Because it’s cool and little, and did we mention that it’s cool?

The footage this little flip has captured is great. We’ve got Takuan everywhere and, even if he acts all nonchalant, we know he’s just loving it!

The quality of the footage is good but it’s proving to be a bit temperamental to edit. We’ve finally found a way to work around these issues so there should be video footage soon. Besides getting this to work cannot possibly be more challenging than making a great Pinot Noir - like the 2006 Haute Cabriere Pinot Noir (you can buy it at the Cabriere online store).

Shameless product punting aside we’ll have our new video footage - and some great new video tasting notes - up before the end of the week (tomorrow).

P.S. We hope you’ve started practices for the Franschhoek Uncorked 2009 Strongest Arm competition.

P.P.S We seem to have a very opinionated, and not totally correct, French socialite - Countess Josephine de Ville - making use of the Tasting by Helicopter experience. We love opinionated and incorrect people, so welcome Countess Josephine de Ville!

If you’ve never been to Franschhoek Uncorked here is how it works:

1. You head out to Franschhoek on the weekend of the 10th and 11th of October 2009
2. You buy yourself a Franschhoek Passport. You can buy it online, before the event, if you’re one of those organised people. The passport costs R60 per person and it gets you: a glass, a complementary shuttle service between farms, free tastings of the wines on offer at any of the participating wineries (which is pretty much everyone) and more.
3. You then head up to us, at Haute Cabriere, and spend the rest of your day sipping away in style.

Sure you could visit other farms but - after a glass of Pierre Jourdan, some Sabrage and some of the good old Takuan charm - they’d all just be disappointing.