A Mother's Day experience at Boschendal Wine Estate

 11 May 2025

 

BOSCHENDAL WINE ESTATE

Pniël Road, Groot Franschhoek

 

I booked a Boschendal chocolate and wine pairing experience for Von-Mari, the two goddaughters and me to celebrate my wife, materfamilias to the gals and two Yorkies, on Mother’s Day at R250,00 a head, payable up front.

 

The venue was the Cellar Door, which has seating inside and outside, the former are rustic wooden tables and the latter are typical wrought iron garden furniture under the majestic trees. The Yorkies could go with if we sat outside and they were on leashes.

 

A couple of cold, wet days lead up to Sunday and I almost pulled the plug on the excursion, thinking that it would a long way to drive in poor weather conditions and, if we went and chose to sit inside, the Yorkies would once again have to languish at home in the deepest of depressions seeing as how we’d left them behind on Friday night and Saturday afternoon already but Von-Mari pointed out that Mother’s Day was forecast to be sunny. It was a go.

 

The last time Von-Mari and I visited Boschendal was for a wine tasting with her family more than a decade ago and if the lush lawns and the majestic, and still mostly green, trees were as I recalled them, the low budgie wire garden furniture had been replaced by the current upmarket look.

 

We had the entire outside space to ourselves. The only other patrons was a Portuguese tour group who’d taken up a table inside. The room was very warm, cosy and tempting but we’re made or sterner stuff, had the pooches and cheerfully bore the trials of sitting on ice cold metal chairs. I did get a blanket from the car for Von-Mari; I’m thoughtful like that 

 

The booking was for 13h00 and with the kind of foresight I rarely show, I ordered a farm baked bread & spreads platter (R110), two 2-person charcuterie boards (R275 each) and two portions of three chicken spring rolls (R95 a portion), for a light lunch to line the stomachs before we poured any vino down our gullets. 

 

We were pleasantly surprised, if not utterly amazed, by the food. Von-Mari and I’ve had unhappy experiences with overpriced and under stocked charcuterie presentations before and I wouldn’t have been surprised if Boschendal did the same.

 

However,  there was a ton of food. The opulent charcuterie platter also came with bread, in addition to the laden bread platter, and the bread was rather spectacularly good.  I think one can honestly say that we smashed the bread.

The spring rolls were well filled, had crisp pastry and weren’t oily at all. The accompanying sweet chilli sauce was first-rate.

 

There was a good variety of meats on the charcuterie board, such as biltong, salami, sliced sausage, with salad leaves and olives, achar and pickled veg.  Very satisfying and very filling.  The platters were sent back stripped clean.

 

Von-Mari arrived kind of hangry but soon exuded a serene sense of wellbeing.   

 

Lucy hung around us to beg for food and the ever curious Prinses roamed as far as we could allow. A win-win for them.

 

By the time we got around to the wine pairing, we’d moved to a table in the sun; previously, it had been mostly cloudy and cool despite the weak sunlight.

 

The pairing consisted of four artisanal chocolates, apparently all based on white chocolate, from a chocolatier in Franschhoek, with Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Pinotage and Shiraz. As a non-wine drinker, the Chardonnay appealed most to me while Von-Mari, who loves Shiraz, preferred the latter. 

The total bill, before tip and including coffee (served in takeaway cups), came to R1995,00.

 

The Cellar Door is set in one of the most magnificent park landscapes in the Wine Region and it would be almost criminal to have to huddle indoors on a cold day and miss out on the beautiful surrounds.

 

The food was good, there was plenty of it and, if a tad pricey, worth it, I thought. 

 

The younger goddaughter, who didn’t drink much, drove us home. In the old days, one could pretty well taste as much wine as you could tolerate and still drive but the law is so strict nowadays a designated driver is essential, or Uber if  convenient.