Oude Wellington Wine & Brandy Estate

Oude Wellington is a Wine and Brandy Estate in the middle of the winelands of South Africa. A cozy restaurant, 4 star guesthouse and Alpaca breeding is our way of life and we wine and dine and love company. So feel free to visit and taste the flavours of Oude Wellington

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Name: Rolf Schumacher
Location: Cape Town / Wellington, Western Cape Winelands, South Africa

Monday 01 March 2010

Help yourself


Was that a planned Tree ambush of the water pipe? Did we miss a mortal battle over recourses between tree and plastic? Very neatly the tree has unsuspiciously grown a little root over the pipe and is busy strangling it until it eventually will have to give up and burst. Just in time did we detect the "plot" and rescued the patrons of the restaurant to have to resort to water buckets to flush their loos as this is the main water source for the rest rooms.
Not a very elegant lead over to the next subject but here it is:
In the bigger picture we pressed the Shiraz and Ruby Cabernet today. It is this wonderful smell of freshly pressed grapes and yeastiness that fills the winery and surroundings which always makes this time of the year so special. The heat wave is still in full swing and temperatures soar to over 42 Degrees Celsius. Standing in the pool with a cold glass of Chardonnay and an ice bucket sounds too tempting.

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Thursday 25 February 2010


Relaxing days on Oude Wellington. The caption of the photo could read "what a night with the girls out" I caught him asleep in the middle of the evidence :o)
In more serious matters the harvest is in stages as the very hot weather had the grapes ripened very rapidly and harvesting teams were in demand, but Grové was very helpful and quickly adapted to the change in weather by coming a day earlier.
From this side of the warmer part of the globe my congratulations go out to the athlets providing this great entertainment in this winter Olympics.
The Soccer Worldcup on the other hand and specific the Match booking scheme have been very disappointing. For four month we were made believe that we are 60% booked for the time of the games only to get a short letter saying "sorry but we couldn't fill the rooms in the outer lying areas, such as the Winelands". So for all South Africans planning their holidays in the Cape in June, you are most welcome and maybe some of the expensive tickets will appear miraculously on gumtree bargain sale as well.
We were all most gracious thankful for the rain we had last night. The worry of bush fires and breaking the heat being the main objections.

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Sunday 14 February 2010

Westcoast


videoThe escape from the harvest and farming for a day at the Westcoast was a very good idea and turned out to be an enjoyable experience. Some very impressive launching of a kite and long walks on the beach (that is driving my Segway for me) we eventually ended up at Muisbosskerm enjoying a very oppulent meal at the famous open air restaurant. I must say the quality is still very good, the theme authentic and the variety of food enourmous. Not just a choice of fish from the braai, but several selections of meat and potjies , oven fresh bread and desert were on offer it was the sheer amount of food piled up deliciously that impresses me each time. Allthough me spent 6 hours driving to and from Lambertsbaai it was well worth it. The sunset was spectacular and we spend a moment thinking of all the cold weather in Germany while having a smile on our faces ;o)
Fuer meine Freunde Bernd und Gabi und Max und Connie in Deutschland ist der Video clip gedacht:

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Saturday 13 February 2010

desaster prevented


A loose connection in the main distribution board created an almost dangerous situation. The core of the earth leakage and a neighbouring circuit breaker burnt and only by accident did we detect the fire. The day before we had the new earth cable to the vineyard cottage installed and the electrician must have had the wires crossed. Well, anyway no blame as they did come out immediatly and fixed the problem. That shows you how quickly it can happen.
On the good news side we finally found a new supplier for the brandy bottle ribbons and will hopefully get the rest of the packaging sometimes this month. So now we decided to go to the beach for the day.

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Monday 08 February 2010

Murphies Day

You know the rule: What can go wrong will go wrong. It was one of those days I should have stayed in bed. First the electric cable to the bore hole pump burnt out. Probably a root grown into the cable somewhere (the cable is more then a 100Meter long). So quick decision, before searching the fault I rather upgrade the cable since it was a bit weak in the first place. So price comparison showed more then a thousand Rand difference. The company promised delivery by three O'clock, which would have allowed to still install the cable and get the pump going before we run out of water.
While digging the trench our workers managed to find the main underground water pipeline twice ... that is with a pick. So, who needs water witching or divining :o) Last resort was to close all water to all rooms and ourselves, the restaurant, the winery and distillery. That is the moment when you feel the need for a refreshing bath more urgent than ever. Then the phone call came through: Sorry Sir, our guys didn't pick up the cable in Cape Town, it will only be here tomorrow morning. That will have a ripple effect being fully booked the next few days. ... Maybe I should take a nap and maybe it all goes away.

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Thursday 04 February 2010

Shiraz


Shiraz is comming in. Since early this morning we are harvesting Shiraz. Unlike the Chardonnay this vineyard was lesser hit by disease.
A short scare with our small herd of Alpacas when one of my oldest females started coughing and develloped a feaver as it were the same symptoms that led to the untimely death of the last female in December.
I learned a lot about swimming pool pumps after taking the pump apart not once but more than 8 times until we found the cause of the leaking problem with the help of Janine a competent woman who has just opened her own little pool service business besides working a fulltime dayjob and raising a child.

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Saturday 16 January 2010

Harvest


It took another day to harvest the lot, not because it was so much but so little and the grapes far apart and in small bunches. To give you an indication how much damage we had in the Chardonnay vineyard: last year we harvested 8,9 tons of grapes from 1,8 ht organic Chardonnay - this year we brought in 3,3 tons which is a loss of 62% against a normal year. After all the cost and care and man-hours this was quite disappointing. We estimated a loss of 40% and thought this to be bad enough. But let us be hopeful and positive the rest of the harvest is still to come. The picture shows the badly effected vine with virtually no grapes hanging.

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