During our holiday, we popped in for some wine tasting and lunch at Ridgeback Wines. When we arrived, we were told that we would not be able to taste any wines due to the fact that they were full/short-staffed. However, shortly after we sat down on the deck for lunch, we were greeted by Pieter, who had come to help out and serve us for the wine tasting. Pieter was truly amazing and made our experience at Ridgeback Wines truly memorable. He is a perfect example of what good service should be, and I can say that, without a doubt, we would not have had such a great time, if it was not for him. Funny, witty, charming, but also very knowledgeable and attentive, he made the tasting experience enjoyable and we felt welcomed. 

You can sit on the deck for the wine tasting and also for the lunch. It overlooks a beautiful dam (see below), where there are many fish and waterfowl.

For the wine tasting, you can taste 5 wines for R25 or 10 wines for R50. We just picked 5, as we wanted to order wine with our lunch too. The farm has a wide selection of wines to choose from, with three ranges: the Lion Hound Range, the Vansha Range, and the Ridgeback Range. The latter range aims to produce top quality white and red wines (both single varietals as well as blends), and the other two aim for good quality wines, with the Lion Hound Range focusing specifically on making these everyday, good quality wines more affordable.

I tasted the Ridgeback's Sauvignon Blanc (obviously), Chenin Blanc, Viognier, Journey (see below left) and His Master's Choice. The Journey (2013) has flavours of mulberry, plum and pepper spice with a hint of mint. It's R90 a bottle, and well worth the price. I also enjoyed this Sauvignon Blanc. At R50 for the 2015 vintage, it has flavours of passion fruit, guava, lime, gooseberry and pineapple. It's particularly refreshing on a hot day. (The 2016 vintage is R65 a bottle).

Whilst wine tasting, Pieter brought us some food to feed the fish and swans (see below right). This was a nice touch and we had a good laugh at how the swans simply take over and push the other birds and fish out of the way.

We ordered a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc 2016 (see below left) to enjoy with our lunch. It's so easy-drinking and enjoyable. I ordered a Gourmet Burger for lunch (see below right) for R78. It is a homemade beef patty served with guacamole, crispy bacon, pickles, and tomato relish on a crispy roll. It comes with French fries and tempura onion rings, which were really yummy! The burger itself was a bit over-cooked, but the flavours were great. Ideally, you should pair it with the Ridgeback Journey wine (pictured above), but it was a hot day, so we opted for cool, white wine instead.

Their menu has quite a range, with various breakfast options (ranging from R32 to R72), to platters for two (ranging from R195 - R205), to curries (R98 and R105) and also steak (for R115). You can check it out here. 

Overall, we had a great experience here, and I'd definitely recommend it to others.

Contact: + 27 (0) 21 8698068
Email: info@ridgeback.co.za
Address: Off the R44, Windmeul, Paarl, 7630
Website: http://www.ridgebackwines.co.za/