If you ever find yourself in Hermanus on a Saturday morning, do yourself a favour and spend the morning at Hermanuspietersfontein’s Saturday market.
There’s nothing I haven’t seen at other markets but it’s the atmosphere that makes this my favourite market by far!
The first stall you’ll find at the entrance is of course Hermanuspietersfontein’s own wine stall.
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| HPF |
So equipped with a bottle of ‘Bloos’ in an ice bucket in the one hand, camera in the other we were ready to explore the rest the market has to offer. You’ll find the normal cheeses, cold meats, sweet treats, nuts & jams, pancakes and breads. Everything I tastes was fresh and delicious.
There were also some other interesting stalls selling things like Greek mezes, cocoa chocolate tastings and interesting spring rolls and samosas.
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| Greek platters |
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| Chocolate Tasting |
The market is actually quite small and everything happens inside the square on Hermanuspietersfontein’s premises. There are a few tables with benches where people enjoyed the perfect sunshine day we had in the middle of the otherwise wet and gray Cape winter.
There’s a water feature on the one side of the square with a bunch of yellow rubber ducks that kept the kids occupied the whole morning – I thought this was a clever (and cheap) way of providing entertainment for the kids.
I’m not even going to start talking about the actual wines! If you haven’t tasted their wines yet then you’ve been missing out on one of life’s little gifts! My personal HPF favourites are their No.3 Suavignon Blanc and their Kleinboet red blend.
Wine Village
A short walk from HPF is the Hermanus Wine Village. They have a huge collection of wines and vintages but more importantly the Omie there (I can’t remember his name unfortunately) has an even bigger knowledge of wine, something we don’t often find at wine sellers here in Joburg.
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| Some rare vintages |
We were treated to a wine tasting while the Omie patiently answered all our questions and in return he shared a few stoepstories. Like the one about a wine collector who bought a 27l magnum of some exclusive wine for R15 000 at an auction and when he decided to open it years later it was filled with water!
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| Wine Village: Wine tasting |
Next we headed to Stanford actually looking for the cheese factory. We didn’t know exactly where it was so we turned off at Madre’s Country Kitchen to ask for directions. To our surprise this was not just a farm stall but a wine farm as well. And since we were already there it didn’t take much persuasion to stay for a wine tasting.
Sir Robert Stanford is the name of this little family owned wine farm. They had a lovely everyday-drinking Rose and a well-balanced, elegant red blend called The Hansom.
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| The Sir Robert Stanford range |
We were told to visit the stookhuis before leaving. We didn’t know what it was all about but the name sounded interesting and we could see the little stookhuis shack from the tasting room – so why not.
The stookhuis specialty is Grappa…with espresso. I thought the espresso would break the strong alcohol taste of the Grappa – wishful thinking. This concoction will most definitely kick you into a different gear, faster or slower.
Since our palates were totally spoilt for further wine tastings and the cheese factory closed already (never got round to it) our last stop was Birkenhead brewery. You get to taste all their different beers, from stouts to pilsner to ciders.
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| Beer Tasting |
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| Blacksnake |
Grappa makes you hungry…so we decided to share a beer pie before heading home for the rugby and braai that evening in Hermanus. The beer pie is basically a very loooong stew baked into a pie and goes down very well with their Blacksnake stout.
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| Birkenhead Beer pie |
Another eventful day in the Cape. I love this place!
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