Vergelegen is gearing up to present the Western Cape with what it intends to be one of the region’s best new fine dining restaurants and, with the powerhouse team of Garth Stroebel and Paul Hartmann – both ex-Mount Nelson Hotel and who now run their SA Chefs Academy in Observatory – as consultants, food aficionados in the region will be watching the development closely.
The venue for the new venture will be the premises of the former Lady Phillips restaurant on this Somerset West estate, which is owned by Anglo American and where a tranche of developments and improvements is under way.
There’s a grand new wine-tasting centre, a bistro called the Stables in what was – no surprises – the old stables, and a new herb and vegetable garden which is one of an astonishing 17 gardens of varying kinds on the property, including a glorious rose garden, a camphor forest seemingly full of mystery and intrigue, and the extraordinary “Camellia Garden of Excellence”, one of only two such gardens in the southern hemisphere and which is home to 550 camellia cultivars from as far afield as France and Japan.
Also of interest are the giant oaks and camphor trees (the camphor forest is made up merely of the junior offspring of these grand old dowagers). They are more than 400 years old and enormous, and you feel privileged standing in their shade, gazing up in awe. Similarly, the giant oaks, including the oldest living oak in the country which was planted in 1700. From one side it looks impossibly thick and substantial, but when you walk around to the other side you see that it is entirely hollow yet still supports the great, sprawling giant’s umbrella of a tree soaring above it.
The Stables bistro, adjacent to the new winery, was designed by Christiaan Barnard Interiors and it’s huge, light and bright, and nothing at all what you would expect of a former stables. This sleek yet sturdy contemporary architectural design lends Vergelegen a whole new character, yet it sits well upon the formality of the traditional old farm, one of the oldest at the Cape.
To bring in an appropriately horsey theme, there is a sculpture of a horse by Francois Marais as a centrepiece near the entrance, a shy fellow which draws your eye, one of a range of artworks in the restaurant. Others include gorgeous ceramic heads of oxen by Nicolene Swanepoel and beautifully coloured embroideries.
The menu at the Stables is geared to pleasing family tastes, covering a broad spectrum from breakfasts to tapas. Along the way there are steaks (including “plank steaks” literally served on oak planks, which enhances the flavour and lends character to ingredients), pasta and risotto (excellent roasted butternut ravioli with sage butter and Parmesan), stone oven pizzas, “the sandwich corner”, a “Vergelegen burger”, fish (including kingklip Niçoise) and a “Little VIPs” menu offering spaghetti bolognese, steak and chips, fish fingers and chips, and chicken strips and chips.
The emphasis on “family” is clear, so those who like their meals in a calmer environment might want to hold out for the new Vergelegen restaurant on schedule for a September opening.
The venue for the forthcoming fine dining restaurant was once a very chintzy, floral affair which made you think you were dining on a vast and languid English estate. It was entirely in keeping with its surroundings of formal gardens, flowers everywhere, and a prevailing air of genteel indulgence. Right now this is a building site, as the interior is reconfigured to become the new restaurant later this year.
Vergelegen is many things. It has impeccable environmental credentials, with a 10-year project to clear 220 hectares of arable land well under way (40 000 stacks of cleared alien vegetation dot the mountain slopes).
Bontebok roam a section of the farm as part of another preservation project, a noble plan given that there are only 1 800 bontebok left in the world and that they are endemic to the Cape.
But at its heart Vergelegen is a wine farm and it has just released a proud new wine with extremely striking packaging.
It is called DNA and it is contained in a black bottle embossed with a thumb print, with an octagonal design on the capsule suggesting a double helix. The contents are a blend of 60 percent cabernet franc, 25 percent merlot and 15 percent cabernet sauvignon, making this a distinctive and complex wine packed with dark fruits and a backbone of liquorice.
It’s marketed as a maverick among wines, which makes it stand out among the firm traditions of Vergelegen while also acknowledging its newfound bold modernism. - Weekend Argus