Simondium (C 16)

Name: Simondium

Source: http://www.weddingsa.co.za/

The little hamlet of Simondium lies at the upper point of a triangle with Stellenbosch and Franschoek on the R45 and, because it is the lesser known of the three, tends to be described in terms of the other two towns, with little to warrant a visit in its own right.

But Simondium has fast earned a reputation of its own, particularly with regard to cheese. The annual South African Cheese Festival, which takes place on the rustic Bien Donné farm in Simondium in April, is now a major culinary event with people turning up in their droves to sample champion cheeses and wine.

Local Simondium cheese makers have been among the medal winners, and local Dalewood Fromage, who farm using organic hand-crafted methods, have won awards for their Wineland Brie with Green Fig. Inspired by the Slow Food movement, the festival includes a cheese workshop where local cheese masters explain all about what goes in to making cheese.

As if to celebrate its new found popularity, Simondium also hosts the annual Cape Country Picnic Festival in February, again on the Bien Donné farm. All the food and drinks can be bought at the various stalls and the weekend also provides a sunset concert.

Although wines have been produced in Simondium only in recent years, and include wine farms such as Lindhorst Wines, Cowlin Wines and Vrede en Lust, some of the vines date back 300 years and are fast earning a reputation in their own right.

Simondium is also on the Western Cape Brandy Route, introduced in 1997, 325 years after the first brandy was distilled in South Africa.

Backsberg in Simondium is one of the smaller more intimate cellars on the list, and uses an imported pot from the Cognac region of France in the distilling process of the Sydney Back Estate Brandy.

PAARL

Paarl, some 60 km north-east of Cape Town, is one of the three oldest European settlements in South Africa. Early explorers in the Cape area were in constant search for gemstones. On a early morning expedition in the month of October, 1657, Abraham Gabemma and Pieter Potter saw a mountain looking as if it was covered with jewels. They then named it den Diamant ende Peerlbergh - the Diamond-and-Pearl-Mountain.

The town nestled in the valley below, therefore, was named Paarl, after the pearly rocks of the mountain. Here in 1687, on the banks of the Berg River, farmlands were given to Dutch settlers, just 30 years after Jan van Riebeeck's landing at the Cape. The fertile ground and the Mediterranean climate provided perfect conditions for farming. The settlers planted orchards, vegetable gardens and above all, vineyards, and eventually in the 19th century the wagon-building industry of South Africa was established in Paarl.

Today it is home to a very culturally diverse community, the product of its unique history. The people of Paarl are descendants of the Khoisan, African-, and Eastern slaves, Dutch, French Huguenots, Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe, Italian Prisoners of War, and Xhosa migrant labourers.

Paarl, with its 75,000 inhabitants, is today the biggest town in the Cape Winelands. Situated only 45 minutes from Cape Town, and close to the golden beaches of both the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, Paarl has the infrastructure of a small city without sacrificing its country atmosphere.

It is, like most of the towns in the region, a prosperous community with many well maintained mansions, pretty Cape Dutch houses, beautiful gardens and old oak trees. There are many wine estates situated in the valleys, which are among the best in the country.
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