The Stables Wine Estate Media Release

 No: Stables0711

5 April 2007

Nottingham Road - The Stables Wine Estate was recognised for it’s pioneering role in establishing a wine industry in KwaZulu-Natal at the Tourism KwaZulu-Natal Service Excellence awards ceremony at the ICC in Durban on Wednesday night. 

The Stables owners Judy and Tiny van Niekerk were on hand to receive the prestigious Most Innovative Tourism Project award from the MEC for Tourism Arts and Culture Weziwe Thusi.

“We are over the moon,” said an elated Tiny van Niekerk, the winemaker at The Stables. “This is far more than a tourism excellence award for us. This is about the recognition of the whole wine industry in KwaZulu-Natal, and the huge potential that it has.”

“Tourism KZN has been fantastic in sharing our vision for the wine industry in this province, and this award will go a long way towards cementing the wine culture and lifestyle in the Zulu kingdom,” he added.

“This province can easily be about wine as much as it is about the Berg, Beach, Battlefields and the Bush,” he added.

The Van Niekerks have short term plans to expand their operation to include a restaurant and wellness centre, and to continue to host arts and music events such as their recent Grape Crushing Festival, where acoustic guitar maestro Tony Cox performed, their December Blues Festival, and the Spring Vine Budding Festival.

The Stables Wine Estate was established on a farm outside Nottingham Road by Tiny and his wife Judy Van Niekerk in 2004. They planted a range of new Pinot Noir, Pinotage, Chardonnay, Wiesser Riesling, Viognier, Tannat and Nouvelle vines on the farm, and produced a range of wines from grapes made under their supervision in the Western Cape, while their own vines were establishing.

The Van Niekerks efforts led to the certification of KwaZulu-Natal as a recognised Wine or Origin region, and in 2006 their farm was registered as the first KZN Wine Estate.

In 2006 the estate’s Pinotage Clariet was the first wine to be certified as a KZN Wine of origin, using free run juices from KZN grown Pinotage grapes to produce a distinctive dry, salmon coloured blanc de noir wine.

In 2006 The Stables purchased a further nineteen hectares from the Bracken Forestry estate near Greytown, while allowed them access to five year old vines carrying Sauvignon Blanc, Shiraz, Merlot, Pinotage, Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Cabernet Franc grapes.

In January and February 2007, The Stables completed the harvest of these grapes, enabling them to start maturing an entire range of KwaZulu-Natal Wines of origin to compliment the ground-breaking Clariet produced in 2006.

For more information please contact Judy or Ty on 033 266 6781 or by email on info@stableswine.co.za

ENDS

Dave Macleod/
Gameplan Media

Lisa Harvey/
Gameplan Media

Gameplan Media