Rijk's tasting room review
Rijk's Private Cellar - Tasting Room Review
Driving back to the four-way stop in Tulbagh, take a left into the main road and drive a kilometre or less to the entrance of Rijk’s Private Cellar, on your left. Signs to the restaurant and tasting room are slightly confusing and I get mildly lost. I drive to what I assume is the cellar but turn back when everything seems to be under lock and key. Maybe they are expecting me?
I enquire at the restaurant and am informed that I had indeed been at the right building. I drive back, unhook the door, and am happy to find that they are actually open for tastings. The interior is rather unimaginative, the small, wheelchair-accessible room only hosting a couple of round tables, a wine counter and a corner where older vintages and their awards are displayed. A glass pane provides a view of the fermentation cellar.
Lucilia is on duty and delighted to have customers. She starts discussing the wines available for tasting, the labels, the vintages, the fermentation and maturation processes, the winemaker, release policies, harvesting and bottling procedures… Twenty minutes in, I still haven’t tasted anything. Eventually I take a seat at one of the tables to gesture that it is tasting time. All the wines are available, bar the red blends Bravado and The Crossing. This, Lucilia explains, is because it is not viable to open these bottles during the week when there aren’t enough visitors – and these are not wines you want to pour down the drain.
Because it is quiet, Lucilia has the time and resources to deliver a proper tasting. Numbered place mats are put on the table and every wine is served in a separate glass in a sequence determined by winemaker Pierre Wahl, who comes down from his office at one point but then disappears through the door leading to the fermentation cellar without so much as a nod in our direction. I am slightly disappointed. If anything he could have added a special dimension to this tasting. Nonetheless, Lucilia is a pleasant host, chatting away comfortably, attending to my every query.
I taste nearly all the wines and am impressed by the Chenin Blanc 2006, Cabernet Sauvignon 2003 and white blend Fascination 2006. Based on my impression of the 2006, I decide to buy the Chenin Blanc 2005 – for the full aged experience – as well as a bottle of the Cabernet Sauvignon 2003 at R120 each. My tasting partner buys three bottles of the Semillon 2005 (R96 per bottle) and three of the Shiraz 2003 (R120). The R5 tasting fee (per wine) is waived and Lucilia, still chatting, walks us out.
Tel 023 230 1622; www.rijks.co.za
OPEN: Mon–Fri 10:00–16:00,
Saturday: 10:00–14:00
SERVICE: 8/10 – friendly,
knowledgeable and chatty
AMBIENCE: 5/10 – uninspired
and plain
VALUE: 7/10 – fee can add up when
all the reds and whites are tasted
QUALITY: 8/10 – aged,
sophisticated wines
