Cape Town celebrates first City Harvest Festival 2007

Cape Town’s inner city rejuvenation efforts will receive another welcome boost this coming weekend when the Mother City celebrates its inaugural City Harvest Festival.

Hosted by Mandela Rhodes Place, the City Harvest Festival starts at 12 today and will run until tomorrow (Saturday, 21st April) evening. This is more than just another wine festival, but rather a harvest celebration which will showcase some of the Western Cape’s finest wines, fabulous food offerings, vibrant lifestyle and amazing entertainment.

This event will also coincide with the bottling of Signal Hill Winery’s first Noveau vintage of 2007 – the first bottling of this year’s harvest by South Africa’s only inner city winery.

The festivities will officially kick off at lunch time on Friday, when the season’s final harvest grapes will ceremoniously be delivered by horse and cart to Signal Hill winery for pressing.

For the remainder of the day, and the whole of Saturday, Cape Town’s best loved chefs including the likes of Pete Goffe-Wood of Kitchen Cowboys fame, Giggling Gourmet Jenny Morris, Great Wall of China conqueror David Grier, and George Jardine of Jardine’s Restaurant will all showcase their culinary talents using local wine and seasonal food.

The Mix, featuring music diva Julie Mabika, and jazz muso Jason Reolon will entertain the masses by performing regular sets in the comfort of the Mandela Rhodes Place basement. 

Wine lovers will be treated to a first-hand behind-the-scenes glimpse of the winemaking industry and process by Wilhelm Coetzee of Flagstone Winery, Clive Torr of Topaz, Anton Louw of Ziggurat Wines, Catherine Marshall of Barefoot Wine Company, Jabulani of Thabani Wines and many more.

 
In addition, some of the Western Cape’s finest wine estates, including Du Preez Wine Estate in Robertson, Hermanus Pietersfontein, Longridge in Stellenbosch, La Caronne in Franschhoek, Wedgeview, Under Oaks, Leopards Leap and Monterosso will showcase their wines for tasting and purchase.

An array of gastronomic delights also await visitors to the host venues, Signal Hill Winery, Café Mao, Riboville, WineSense and Sundance Café, where guests will have the opportunity to indulge in some of their mouth-watering offerings from tapas to Asian cuisine and tantalising gourmet delicacies.

Entrance is to the festival is free and visitors can purchase R75 and R50 coupon booklets which includes a complimentary wine glass, as well as food sampling and wine tasting coupons, from Wine Sense and the concierge desk at Mandela Rhodes Place.  Top-up booklets with extra wine tasting coupons are available at R30. 

Mandela Rhodes Place is situated opposite the Company Gardens at the foot of St George’s Mall, on the corner of Adderley and Wale Street.