PLETTENBERG BAY NEWS - The finer things in life will once more be celebrated in style in Plettenberg Bay later this year after the dates for the fifth annual Plett Wine & Bubbly Festival was released.
The event, which will this year take place on 29 and 30 September, showcases not only the town’s growing wine industry but also its locally sourced and prepared food as well as local talent.
Plett Tourism spokesperson Patty Butterworth says the festival will once again take place on the edge of Plett’s popular Central Beach providing a breathtaking backdrop, including the iconic Robberg peninsula and Tsitsikamma Mountains, for the festival.
Expanding wine industry
“It is a unique opportunity for residents and visitors to experience the boutique wines from the region,” Butterworth said. The Plett wine industry was established in 2000 when local resident Peter Thorpe, who grew up on a wine farm in Worcester, planted the first vines of sauvignon blanc in the Crags area on his Bramon Wine Estate. This became the first wine estate so far east of the Western Cape.
Today there are 16 wine farms of which nine are open to the public with either a tasting room or a restaurant. These include Bitou, Bramon, Newstead, Redford Lane, Kay & Monty, Lodestone Wine & Olives, Luka, Packwood and Plettenvale. 10 local wine farms represented.
The event, which will this year take place on 29 and 30 September, showcases not only the town’s growing wine industry but also its locally sourced and prepared food as well as local talent.
Not only has the industry grown in terms of numbers of vineyards, but also quality of wines with several winning awards for their wines. Butterworth says that although Plett is relatively new to the wine industry of South Africa, festinos would be able to taste products from 10 of the local wine farms at the festival. These will include sauvignon blanc, chardonnay, pinot noir, rosé and plenty of méthode cap classique. Visitors will also be given the opportunity to talk to the winemakers.
Back on the menu this year is the Taste of Plett, which will see local iconic restaurants pair locally sourced and produced food with the local wines.
This will include artisan cheese, charcuterie and bread as, well as sushi, other savouries and cultivated oysters. Another firm favourite on the programme is the Plett Wine Theatre. This will end the festival off with a wine guest of honour sharing some knowledge with aficionados. Previously these guests included the likes of Pieter Ferreira, or Mr Bubbles as he is known, from Graham Beck Wines and wine columnist and enthusiast Peter Bishop.
The festival comes after a bumpy ride last year when its main sponsor withdrew its sponsorship.
Local musicians signed up
To set the mood, local DJs and musicians will also showcase their talents alongside a national headliner which is still to be announced.
The festival comes after a bumpy ride last year when its main sponsor withdrew its sponsorship. The Bitou Municipality however came to the rescue to ensure that the festival did not lose the momentum it had built up over the past four years.
The festival has grown massively over the past four years and attracted about 2 000 visitors in 2017, an improvement from the previous year’s 1600 guests. When the festival was first introduced in 2014 it attracted about 500 visitors, a year later the figure more than doubled. The event has also created significant media coverage with editorial value of R1.9-million during the first year, R2.2-million in 2015 and more than R3.5-million last year.
Butterworth added that the wine industry was also playing a role in agriculture in Bitou and could be seen as a “gateway to other produce in the area”.
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