South Africa: Cederberg Shiraz + Venison Festival | Turn Up the Volume with Bottomless Coffee
Our fabulous festival is ending and it is time to turn up the volume to celebrate a week long Shiraz and venison feast. Popular folk rock duo Bottomless Coffee are performing an exclusive show so polish those wine glasses, create a dance floor in your lounge, open your favourite bottles of Cederberg wine and enjoy!
Stock Up On Shiraz
This Offer Is Coming To an End!
More ways to celebrate Shiraz with our exclusive six bottle case promotion. Available during the festival week only.
6 x Cederberg Sustainable Rosé
R405.00
The Cederberg Rosé, made of Shiraz on sandstone soil, shows elegant aromas of strawberries, watermelon and cotton candy. It has a dry entry with a creamy palate yet it has a crisp finish. This shiraz-based Rosé has an exotic coral pink appearance, a real summer refresher!
6 x Cederberg Merlot Shiraz
R621.00
6 x Cederberg Shiraz
R1,350.00
A complex Shiraz filled with intense red fruit, mulberry and cherries on the nose. 15 Months in oak showing hints of sweet spice and vanilla. Red berries follow through on the palate and finish off with a smooth lingering sensation. A well-crafted Shiraz that allows you to cellar the wine for a few years developing into a sensational wine. Pair with South African game, powerful cheeses such as young cheddar or gruyere or indulge by pairing with intricate dark bitter chocolate.
A Brief History of Dwarsrivier and the Cellar
The San and Khoi peoples inhabited the Cederberg area from early times, leaving behind a rich legacy of rock art. It was only during the mid-1800s that another tough group of people set foot in the Cederberg – the Nieuwoudt family. The first Nieuwoudts arrived in South Africa during the early 1700s. Nearly 100 years later, their descendants moved to the Cederberg. In 1893 the present family moved to the farm Dwarsrivier, which is also known as Cederberg Private Cellar and Sanddrif Holiday Resort. Six generations ago, no one would have guessed that this rugged, fynbos-covered area on the edge of the Succulent Karoo biome would one day become a high-altitude wine farm in the Cape winelands.
The farm itself lies in the Cederberg Wilderness Area and only 66 ha are under vine. Today, this award-winning winery is owned by David Nieuwoudt – proudly fifth generation. Emma, David’s daughter, is the sixth generation. Many stories have been told about ‘how it all started’. Maybe the first Platter’s guide to South African wines (1980) puts it best: ‘Oom Pollie has confounded the experts by producing prize-winning wines on his farm high in the remote Cederberg Mountains. He first started making wine for the farm workers with table grapes that ripened too late to be taken in by the nearest co-operative. The venture was so successful, he decided to try his hand at making red wine, and the first vintage in 1977, though too small to be certified, was acclaimed by experts as being up to Superior standards’.
The other story goes as follows: There used to be no vines on the farm. A friend, who worked for the Deciduous Fruit Board, noticed that winter fruit was doing really well on this fruit and tobacco farm. He recommended that the family plant table grape vines. This was done in 1965 and these vines did so well that the first wine vines were planted in 1973 – the source of the top-class Cabernet Sauvignon of 1977/8. David’s grandfather, Oom Pollie, and his uncle, Oom Flippie, managed the farm until 1997. During 1997 David took over the reins from Oom Flippie. Oom Pollie passed on during 1988 and Oom Flippie in 2010.
HOW DID YOU START MAKING WINE HERE AT DWARSRIVIER?
Before the political changes of the 1990s, wine farming was an income like any other kind of farming, may it be sheep, fruit or fish. The big names in the industry were well known, of course. Up to 1990 the Nieuwoudts focused on fruit, tobacco, vegetables and livestock. During the 1990s, when sanctions were lifted, farming life changed quite radically and many farmers started specialising. Younger farmers, in many cases, faced huge challenges – the whole world had suddenly become their playground and delivery field. In the Cederberg, David Nieuwoudt returned to the land where he grew up and decided to focus on wine – after all, that was what he had studied and loved. The year? 1997.
THE "WATER STORY": WHAT IS SO INTERESTING ABOUT DWARSRIVIER’S WATER?
All the water used on the farm comes from free-running mountain springs that feed the Dwars River, which originates west of the Sneeuberg Mountain, partly on our land. We do not use any water from the Uitkyk area. When we refer to ‘the farm’ we mean the household water consumption of 29 houses, Sanddrif Holiday Resort, the irrigation system for the vineyards, and the water for the wine cellar and Cederberg Brewery. Sanddrif’s irrigation water comes from another source.
WHAT IS THE GREATER CEDERBERG BIODIVERSITY CORRIDOR?
The Greater Cederberg Biodiversity Corridor (GCBC) is a unique project in the sense that nowhere in South Africa is there an area as large as this that includes the people, their agricultural and other activities, and an unspoilt natural area. The Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF) financed the initial work for the project. This was so successful that the Global Environment Facility (GEF) donated R1,5 million to fund the implementation phase over five years.
Terroir
The Cederberg lies about 250 km north of Cape Town. This vast region encompasses approximately 162 000 ha of rugged mountainous terrain, stretching from the Pakhuis Pass behind Clanwilliam in the north, to Grootrivier in the south, towards Ceres. Forty six kilometres inland from the N7, between Citrusdal and Clanwilliam – with two mountain ranges separating the farm from the Olifants River – lies Cederberg Private Cellar on the farm Dwarsrivier.
It is the highest wine farm above sea level in the Western Cape. In terms of the SA Wine of Origin (WO) Scheme, the Cederberg ward was proclaimed on 24 February 1978. There are 51 wards in the winelands of South Africa. Take note that Cederberg is one of a few that do not fall under any of the 18 districts or five regions. Why? Simply put, it all boils down to the terroir.
Cederberg Private Cellar is the only wine farm in the Cederberg ward. And do not confuse the commercial wine route system with the Wine of Origin classification system. A wine route is a commercial venture and has nothing to do with the Wine of Origin Scheme. Cederberg Private Cellar does not belong to a wine route and by law resorts under the Cederberg ward.
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