I ♥ Constantia Because ...

I ♥ Constantia

Hi, I’m Olga Backberg from Wild Peach Cottage in Constantia.

Constantia IS BEST KNOWN FOR its stun­ning nat­ural beauty and as the birth­place of the wine farm­ing industry in South Africa.
GET YOUR PICTURE TAKEN AT Groot Constantia, the old­est and prob­ably the most fam­ous wine estate in South Africa, with sev­eral well-preserved ori­ginal build­ings rep­res­ent­ing some of the best examples of the Cape Dutch archi­tec­tural style, for which this area is renowned.
THE BEST pan­or­amic land­scape pic­tures  over­look­ing the Constantia Valley and False Bay CAN BE TAKEN FROM the slopes of the Table Mountain chain, when hik­ing on one of the many paths between Constantia Nek and Cecilia Forest (no need to be extremely fit to go on these hik­ing trails!).
OTHER HAPPY SNAPS AT world-renowned Kirstenbosch National Botanic Garden, which is home to over 22,000 indi­gen­ous plants. Continued

High Constantia – wines that bring one a little closer to heaven

High Constantia

I feel like one of the priv­ileged few when a friend of mine men­tions he knows a wine maker. And not just any wine maker. We're talk­ing High Constantia here.

“Where is High Constantia?” I ask, los­ing any kudos as a wine con­nois­seur, whilst men­tally fol­low­ing the Constantia wine route down the hill from Constantia Nek – Groot Constantia, Klein Constantia, Steenberg – but I soon real­ise, on closer exam­in­a­tion, that the route has acquired a couple of 'newer' farms – well, 'new' in the sense that they're newly on the route.

High Constantia is any­thing but a new farm. Groot Constantia, way back in the year 1693 when High Constantia first came into exist­ence, had to pass between the very gate posts that still stand down at High Constantia Village (people know it more com­monly as the vil­lage where Green's res­taur­ant is) in order to reach their farm. Anyone trav­el­ling out here, had to bypass High Constantia in order to reach Groot Constantia. Continued

Constantia Winelands Photographs

We couldn't have asked for bet­ter weather when we went on a short tour of the Constantia Wine Route recently. With so many options to choose from it was a dif­fi­cult decision of where to go. We settled on a lazy lunch and wine tast­ing at Buitenverwachting and a late after­noon tast­ing (which turned into a relaxed din­ner) at Bistro 1682 at Steenberg. If you live in Cape Town and haven't yet gone on your own wine exper­i­ence I hope these pho­to­graphs inspire you. Otherwise if you're a vis­itor this should be very high on your to do list...

Continued

Jonkershuis Restaurant at Groot Constantia — a review

Jonkershuis Restaurant

I’ve had break­fast at Jonkershuis, I’ve had lunch at Jonkershuis, I’ve had scones and tea at Jonkershuis and finally, on Friday even­ing, I had din­ner at Jonkershuis Restaurant!  We planned ahead and booked a table but on arrival at Groot Constantia we real­ised this had not been neces­sary — clearly Sunday morn­ing break­fast is a lot busier (the lawns out­side are the per­fect place for ener­getic chil­dren where their par­ents can keep a watch­ful eye over them while enjoy­ing a deli­cious break­fast or lunch).

Nevertheless, a few tables were occu­pied and con­ver­sa­tion filled the res­taur­ant.  We were seated slap bang next to the fire­place and we per­used the menu after order­ing a bottle of red to get the week­end off to a good start ... Continued

The building hidden in amongst the trees – visiting Light from Africa

Light From Africa

The Light from Africa Ceramic Art Studio and Gallery lies along Rhodes Drive on the edge of Constantia Nek. As you enter the park­ing lot usu­ally reserved for those intent on a walk, you'll see the sign for Light from Africa tacked up on a very tall tree (it's part of the Cape Town Design Route).

The incred­ible build­ing in which the found­a­tion is housed is hid­den in amongst the trees just below the walk along Constantia Nek towards Cecilia Forest. If you've done this walk and acci­dent­ally taken the right fork in the road, you'll have passed this gor­geous build­ing and wondered, no doubt like me, what it is for ... Continued

Constantia Crush — A review

Constantia Crush

I enjoyed a lazy brunch this past Sunday with some good friends and even though we had had more than enough to eat a sug­ges­tion was thrown into the pot to head over to the Constantia Uitsig for the Crush on Constantia Festival. What a great idea, not only did the weather cooper­ate and make sure there was plenty of sun­shine, but the event did not dis­ap­point either.

The theme was Grand Garden Glamour and although none of us had dressed up we didn’t feel out of place. Sadly only a hand­ful of couple’s had dressed up to the theme, but this meant that there were not too many people to com­pete with for the great prizes ... Continued

Grand Garden Glamour at this years Constantia Crush

Crush on Constantia

Have you ever wanted to attend a grand tea party? One of those parties you have seen in the movies or can ima­gine tak­ing place at the Queen’s Palace on a lovely day?  If this idea tickles your fancy then come on down to The Cricket Oval at Constantia Uitsig on Sunday 18 April 2010 for a won­der­ful day outdoors.

Crush on Constantia is now in its third year and is cer­tain to provide a lively day filled to the brim with live enter­tain­ment, a life­style mar­ket and much more to keep you busy. This day will be a cel­eb­ra­tion of all things Constantia. Continued

The River Café at Constantia Uitsig

The River Café

Last night was our Girls Night Out and our venue of choice was The River Café at Constantia Uitsig.  I hadn’t been before and think­ing that it must be around Groot Constantia some­where (who needs a map book when there is a moun­tain to guide one) set off and before long found myself at Constantia Nek and about to drop down into Hout Bay.

Where was this place I asked myself?!  After a quick cel­lu­lar call to the rest of the clan I made my way back in the right dir­ec­tion and arrived at the cor­rect loc­a­tion about ten minutes later (and what do you know – Constantia Uitsig is about 8 minutes drive from my house) so the scenic route was unne­ces­sary! Continued

Bistro 1682 at Steenberg

Bistro 1682

Cape Town is renowned for it's res­taur­ants and eat­er­ies — from deli’s to 5-star cuisine, little café’s, cof­fee shops, wine estates and more, and often places open up faster than you can keep track of. A place that has been much spoken about over the last few months, and one that I have been eagerly wait­ing to try out, is the new Bistro-style res­taur­ant at Steenberg Golf Estate in Constantia, which is already quite pop­u­lar for their fine din­ing res­taur­ant Catharina’s.

Bistro 1682 is an innov­at­ive concept with an extremely unique wine tast­ing bar and cool, com­fort­able res­taur­ant. Where does the name come from? 1682 is the year Steenberg was first estab­lished and so seems quite a fit­ting name. The res­taur­ant has a com­pletely formal yet relaxed atmo­sphere, it is dif­fi­cult to explain but it exudes eleg­ance and cas­u­al­ness at the same time ... Continued

Groot Constantia Christmas Gift and Garden Fair

I hadn’t man­aged to get to the Christmas Gift and Garden Fair dur­ing the even­ing this week so popped in dur­ing lunch time on its last day.  Held at Groot Constantia, the set­ting itself would have been good enough if the fair had not lived up to expect­a­tion.  But it did not fail to deliver!

For a small R20 entry fee (all pro­ceeds go to The Red Cross Children’s Hospital, and in par­tic­u­lar will be used to buy lifesav­ing equip­ment for the new Operating Theatre Complex) I gained access to the ‘hall’ and strolled along the rows of exhib­it­ors.  On sale were all sorts of lovely things, per­fect for Christmas shop­ping ... Continued