If you consider yourself a foodie then no Garden Route trip would be complete without stopping over at Bramon, about 20km from Plettenberg Bay in a mountainous stretch called The Crags.
This family-owned, boutique estate pioneered the wine industry in this part of the world and is by now quite famous for an award-winning Sauvignon Blanc bubbly, among other wines, including a range that empowers the local community.
Simple yet delicious
The restaurant on the estate is a delight. It is open daily for a mezze-style lunch from 11am to 5pm and you can either sit inside (cosy fires typically crackle away in winter) or else at sunny tables overlooking the vines and splendid mountainside.
The food is simple but delicious. You are presented with a checklist listing the various mezze options and then just tick off whatever takes your fancy: think marinated olives, hummus, chicken liver pate, dolmades and the like. We especially enjoyed the smoked snoek pate and the utterly decadent baked brie with cranberry.
Fresh & relaxing
Do ask for the plaited, home-baked bread to accompany your selection; small and large rosemary-and-salt encrusted loaves are available and ours arrived straight from the oven, setting the tone for a languid afternoon.
The place is very welcoming and the wines in particular are not to be missed. Service is relaxed, not slow, in keeping with the setting and the fact that most patrons will probably want to park off here for several hours!
On the day we visited there was also excellent live music to chill to. Kids are very welcome and the wonderful dose of fresh country air they’ll get here will surely do them wonders.
The wines
Bramon is owned by Peter and Caroline Thorpe, who named the estate after their children, Bram and Manon. Peter was raised on a wine farm in the Western Cape and it is largely thanks to his vision and effort that the Plett area, of which The Crags is a picturesque (not to mention very fertile) part, is now classified a Wine of Origin region. Bramon is one spot along the burgeoning Plett Wine Route that is absolutely not to be missed!
044 534 8007
073 833 8183
Words and Images: Louise Liebenberg
