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!

Tonight is the start of the 2009 Franschhoek Cap Classique and Champagne Festival. It’s going to be a weekend filled with amazing local cap classique - most notably Pierre Jourdan - French Champagne and fabulous Franschhoek cuisine.

The only place worth being this weekend is in Franschhoek. Not heading out to take part in this festival would mistake - one you regret until the 2010 Franschhoek Cap Classique and Champagne Festival rolls around next year. Life is too short for regrets … come on join the fun, you know you want to.

The John Platter 2010 wine reviews have been released and the Pierre Jourdan range of Méthode Cap Classique received four separate 4 stars.

Which means that, according to Platter 2010, four of the Pierre Jourdan cap classiques are excellent. Obviously that’s not entirely true … all of the Pierre Jourdan cap classiques are excellent. But you’ll see that for yourself when you pull into the Franschhoek Champagne Festival on the first weekend of December.

Let the countdown begin. In less than a month Franschhoek will once again play host to the Franschhoek Champagne Festival.

Sure we’ve been going on about it but, lets face it, if you made Pierre Jourdan you’d also be going on about the Franschhoek Champagne Festival. It’s going to be amazing and Pierre Jourdan Cap Classique is going to be flowing. Bring your hats, your sunscreen and your designated driver (because you’ll definitely need one of those).

Block off the weekend of 4th, 5th and 6th of December 2009 - it’s going to be the best festival of 2009. Yeeha!

And now a little something short and sweet to get you in the mood … for the Franschhoek Champagne Festival - get that head out the gutter!

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.

This month is all about Cap Classique. As we mentioned in our previous post we’re going to help you warm up for, what promises to be, the very best Franschhoek Festival in the 2008 Festival Calendar.

It’s going to be wonderful pheno spectacular SPECTACULAR. Well at least it’s going to be SPECTACULAR for the one, and only, winner and their partner. For everyone else it’s going to be great. Shame for all of those that don’t win The Greatest Prize Ever.

Someone is going to win a day for themselves, and their partner, with our fearless leader Achim von Arnim at the Franschhoek Cap Classique and Champagne Festival. Achim, for those of you that don’t know, is considered by many to be the South African wine personality. He’s ridiculously passionate about wine, food and people. The lucky individual, who wins this prize, is in for one unforgettable day.

People it’s the stuff memories are made of.

To become the winner of The Greatest Prize Ever you need to motivate why you should win. You can write a blog post about it [please link back to this post so we know you've written something], you can leave a comment on this post or you can email your motivation to winwithcabriere@gmail.com. The best answer, as selected by our panel [who we'll introduce next week], will be selected on the last Friday of November.

And remember it’s like your mother always told you - you can’t win if you don’t enter.

What?

Your mother never told you that? That’s so naughty of her.