Cellar door review: Uitkyk
When visiting Uitkyk, it feels as if everything stops at the gates of mighty Kanonkop, leaving only determined tasters to continue on to the older, more established farm beyond. The road becomes more potholey, the fields on either side are bare and stubbly, but as you approach the lovely, elegant manor house with its lush green lawns and quirky jungle gym, the extra few hundred yards drive seems worth it.
Photographs by Toby Murphy
Dripping in the 33°C heat, we made our way to the tasting room, entering past tinkling water features. Inside is a big, modern space with a small conference section at one end and a walk-round wine shop at the other. The assistant greeted us with a smile and then ran through the tasting options – R15 for five wines or R20 for a brandy and chocolate tasting. The latter involves handmade Huguenot chocolates from Franschhoek, paired with Uitkyk’s famous Grand Reserve brandy, the oldest estate-matured potstill brandy in South Africa. It sounded delicious, but we were too hot for chocolate, so decided on the wine tasting.
I chose from the estate’s second-label range – the 2010 Flat Roof Manor Pinot Rosé (R55). It’s a blend of Pinotage and Pinot Grigio – a fascinating combo – and a great mouthful of juicy fruit with a clean, crisp finish. I would have liked to have been told more about the wine, but the assistant seemed initially content to ‘pour and push off’. Although, happily, after a little prompting, she became much more forthcoming and went into detail about the Italian grape varieties and how successful they were proving for the farm.
Moving on to the Flat Roof Manor Cabernet/Sangiovese 2007 (R40), we realised that it wasn’t just us who were feeling the heat – this was a light, chewy, fruity red which desperately needed to be served cooler than it was. In fact, all the reds would have benefited from half-an- hour in the fridge, but thankfully the whites were refreshingly cold. I enjoyed the well-balanced Uitkyk Chardonnay 2009 (R65), but found the Sauvignon Blanc 2010 (R50) to be too much of a granadilla-packed fruit bomb for my taste.
Uitkyk’s flagship wine, Carlonet, is now in its 50th year of release. Named after a combination of the first winemaker’s name ‘Carlo’ with the ‘net’ from Cabernet on the end, it has been a Cape stalwart for so long that it can easily be overlooked. Big mistake – this is a fantastic Cab with the 2007 showing lots of fruit, plenty of soft, but present tannins and a good juicy length – serious over-delivery at R84 a bottle and probably my favourite wine of the day, although my tasting partner preferred the Reserve Shiraz 2007 (R110) which is made only in exceptional years and is exclusively available from the tasting room. All the reds were very wellpriced considering the quality and well worth a second look.
We bought a few bottles of wine to take home, so I would like to have seen the tasting fee waived for one of us at least, but that only happens with R250- worth of purchases per person, which seems quite steep. The assistant packaged the wines carefully, smiled, took the money and wished us a good day, but as we left the tasting room after a final look around, she had already retreated to her computer. The day was simply just too darned hot for us all!
VERDICT
LIKES
The assistant knew her stuff and communicated well after a slowish start. Excellent value wines,
particularly the top-range reds.
DISLIKES
The inflexibility on the tasting charge.
WHAT ELSE IS THERE?
Pop into Kanonkop on the way and take a look at its art gallery, then head up the road to Warwick for a delicious picnic.
UITKYK is on the R44 just off the N1 (take the Klapmuts turn-off) and is signposted from the main road. The tasting room is open Monday to Friday, 09:00 to 17:00, and weekends 10:00 to 16:00. Tel 021 884 4416;
www.uitkyk.co.za
