Charles Back is the owner of Fairview, and his daughter Bridget Back is the fourth generation of her family to work at the farm. She has spent the past couple of months at the goat sheds for the annual goat kidding season and provided this post.
Cyril and Bridget Back
With the kidding season having started here at Fairview, I found myself spending a lot more time down at the goats, admiring these inquisitive and quirky animals.
After helping the ‘Mammas’ with bottle feeding, old memories of being taken down to play with the goats by my grandparents came flooding back. My grandmother, Beryl, would hold my hand, while leading me down to the sheds, where we would spend hours giggling at the baby goats together. While it was my grandfather, Cyril, and his love for goats that introduced them to the farm many years ago, my grandmother also expressed a love for them through her art. Paging through her sketch pads, one was sure to stumble upon a few, starring back at you.
This year, we have seen 140 kids born so far, amongst three different breeds. The farm is home to the better known Saanens, (the white ones) of which, two Billie Goats reside in their goat palace, The Goat Tower. Amongst the Saanens, one is sure to spot brown and black goats. These are our Toggenbergs and Alpines, adding diversity and charisma to our charming group of Saanen ladies.
Rosie Lebitsa
Everyday, there is a very specific feeding routine that is followed to ensure that the kids are given exactly what they need to mature into strong robust animals. Watching the bottle feeding take place, I feel touched by the amount of affection and love which these little ‘babas’ receive from our adoring ladies. Rosie Lebitsa, who has been caring for our goats since 1994, says that the little ones are children to her. In her eyes, they are all beautiful, and feels very heart sore when they get sick. “Die werk is baie belangrik, want die bokke moet groot word en melk en kaas vir die plaas gee” says Rosie. (“The work is very important, because it is these little goats who will grow up to provide the milk for our farm cheeses.”)
Our goats produce approximately 450 000 litres of milk a year. The milking may start as early as 3am, with the last taking place late afternoon. From this milk, the cheese factory produces 54 000kg of goats milk cheese. Chevin with various toppings, such as Garlic and Herb, Sundried Tomato and Paprika and other delicious spoils can all be found in the Tasting Room on the farm as well as in selected stores across the country.
If only Rosie and her ladies knew how valued they really and truly are!
Here’s to you Rosie! xx
Not Kidding around
With the kidding season having started here at Fairview, I found myself spending a lot more time down at the goats, admiring these inquisitive and quirky animals.
After helping the “Mammas” with bottle feeding, old memories of being taken down to play with the goats by my grandparents came flooding back. My grandmother, Beryl, would hold my hand, while leading me down to the goats, where we would spend hours giggling at the baby goats together. While it was my grandfather, Cyril, and his love for goats that introduced them to the farm, many years ago, my grandmother also expressed a love for them through her art. Paging through her scetch pads, one was sure to stumble upon a few, starring back at you.
This year, we have seen 140 kids, amongst three different breeds, born so far. The farm is home to the better known, Saanen Goats, (the white ones) of which, two Billie Goats reside in their goat palace, The Goat Tower. Amongst the Saanens, one is sure to spot brown and black goats. These are our Toggenberg and Alpine goats, adding diversity and charisma to our charming group of Saanen ladies.
Everyday, there is a very specific feeding routine that is carried out to endure that the kids are given exactly what they need to mature into strong robust animals. Watching the bottle feeding take place, I feel touched by the amount of affection and love which these little “babas” receive from our adoring ladies. Rosie Lebitsa, who has been caring for our goats since 1994, says that the little ones are children to her. In her eyes, they are all beautiful, and feels very heart sore when they get sick. “ Die werk is baie belangrik, want die bokke moet groot word en melk en kaas vir die plaas gee.” Says Rosie.
Our goats produce approximately 450 000 Litres of milk a year. The milking may start as early as 3am, with the last taking place late afternoon. From this milk, the cheese factory produces 54 000kg of Goats milk cheese. Chevin with various toppings, such as Garlic and Herb, Sundried Tomato and Paprika and other delicious spoils can all be found in the Tasting Room on the farm as well as in Selected stores across the country.
If only Rosie and her ladies knew how valued they really and truly are!
Here’s to you Rosie! xx
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Tags: Bridget Back, Fairview, goat kids, goats cheese
A few weeks back we asked for some volunteers to try our tasting of grape varietals that are lesser known. We like to try new things at Fairview and therefore are able to offer a flight of wines that many may not have tried before. Below is the first review of the tasting, written by Anna-Mart Fourie. Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: Anita Streicher, Beryl Back Tasting Room, cheese tasting, Fairview, Sangiovese, Viognier, wine tasting
Those who may have been following our recent will promotion will know what this post is about. For those who haven’t been you can check out the info here.
We invited bloggers to enter their recipe suggestions using Fairview Camembert and after some public voting and then a critical taste test from a panel of judges, we have come out with a winner. They will receive promotion through a recipe card to be packed with our Camembert in the coming months.
Congratulations to our winner, Hila Jonker of Add to Taste, whose Camembert and nutbutter springrolls impressed the judges!
We invited the entrants to the farm for a lunch and little tour of the farm this past Friday, to say thanks for their participation, as well as to let them know the winner. After a tour of the cheeseery and a chance to meet some of our goats, The Goatshed hosted the group and some of the members of the cheese team for a lovely relaxed lunch.
Chris, Lesley, Hila, Maryke, Charles, Nina, Linda, Jessica and Colleen
If you would like to read a bit about their visit you can have a look at these links:
My Easy Cooking | Brownie Girl Blog | The Squashed Tomato | Cape Town News Blog
We are looking forward to working more closely with the talented group of passionate local foodies in the future.
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Tags: Camembert, Charles Back, cheese promotion, Fairview cheese, Food bloggers, Goatshed, kidding
Beryl Back tasting room
As a wine farm that has invested a fair amount of time and money at its cellar door, we do our best to make sure that the experience of our guests gets as much attention as our wines do in the cellar. We love to have people at the farm, and it gives our team of hosts the opportunity to communiciate what our brand is all about and for guests to get some real insight into our brand and our products.
But how much does the cellar door influence your actual impressions of the wine that you are tasting while you are there? If tasting wine sighted (when you know what is in the glass) is said to greatly influence your opinion of a wine, then surely tasting wine at a cellar door is the ultimate in sighted tasting?
Or on the other hand, should the cellar door experience be very impressive does it raise your expectation and result in you demanding more? Personally I find that when dining at a fine restaurant, with a good repuatation, I tend to be much more, and sometimes overly critical, as my expectation is often heightened by my pre-conceptions.
Either way, there is no doubt that wine farms owe it to their guests and to themsleves to offer an exceptional experience, that is in line with their brand and personality. If your wines taste ‘better’ at the cellar door, then do you best to create ambassadors who look forward to returning!
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Tags: cellar door, Fairview, tasting room, wine
Fairview cheeses are available throughout South Africa and if you are a regular in the cheese aisles you may have notice a new addition to the feta shelves. In the past month we have launched our new feta into the market.
Our cheese makers have been working hard on this project for many, many months, getting the recipe and taste perfect. We also decided that if we were going to enter the ultra-competitve feta market we did not want to do ‘more of the same’. So we took the bold decision to launch our product in modern packaging, eliminating the need for brine water. This investment of time (and money) in product development has resulted in a product that we are really proud of . You can read more about Fairview Feta on our website.
What has been even more encouraging has been the feedback that we have received from the public. We initially used our Paarl tasting room as a testing ground, with different recipes and textures to discover consumers’ preferences. (Thanks to all those who were our Fairview feta guinea pigs!) But since launching into the market we have had great feedback, and would like to thank all those who have taken the time to let us know.
We even got an endorsement from the Anti-Brine Society!
Look out for Fairview Feta in all major retailers around South Africa or of course at our farm shop.
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Tags: brine, Fairview Feta, Feta
Fairview tasting pods
A few years ago I was fortunate enough to attend a short course on wine consumer behaviour at the UCT Graduate School of Business. One of the things that was mentioned then was that as a general rule, wine consumers have a core of five brands that they trust and buy regularly, and will venture outside of those five occasionally to try something new. This has been brought about by a number of things, including the competitive noise and confusion facing the average consumer.
This level of competitiveness at product level has moved from the retail shelves to the cellar doors over the past decade, with hundreds of South African wine farms offering an excellent quality cellar door experience. Farms do their best to try to differentiate their offering; to try and stand from the crowd. Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: Cape winelands, cellar door, tasting room, wine farm
Boerbok buck
I was interested to read last week that one of the most famous and exclusive retailers in the world, Harrods of London, will soon
have goat meat available at its food hall meat counter. To date, goat has been available at some African and Caribbean shops in the UK, but has not been mainstream. Top restaurants (including the Michelin starred Pied à Terre) have included it in menus and foodies have raved about its delicious taste and health benefits over more traditional cuts. Goat meat has less than a third of the fat of beef and fewer calories than chicken! It would seem that there is a perception that goat meat would be tough and stringy, as that is how many see the actual animal. But apparently the truth is quite the opposite, with the meat having a mild game flavour and lovely texture when slow cooked. Read the rest of this entry »
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After the recent recognition of a wine from our sister cellar, The Spice Route Winery, at the Japan Wine Challenge, I thought I would take a quick look at the Japanese wine market and South Africa’s performance in it.
The Japanese still wine market is one that is still relatively young, with average wine consumption per capita at around 2.5 litres per capita. However it is a market that is growing, amidst a tough economic climate. In 2009, overall Japanese imports sank by 30.7% but the importation of wine from the USA rose by 28%! From a Fairview perspective, Japan has grown significantly over the past five years and is now our 8th largest market collectively, including all of the brands that fall under Charles Back’s operations.
Source: www.sawis.co.za
According to the SAWIS website, Japan is currently the 18th largest export market for South African wines, accounting for just under 1% of total exports. However from 2005 to 2009, the total volume of bottled wine exported to the country has doubled and based on the year to date ending June 2010, that trend is continuing. The YTD June 2010 figure is up 42% on the preceding 12 months. Of real interest to me was the increase in the export of rosé, which jumped 500% year on year for the period ending Jun 2010. This is in keeping with the increasing trend towards rosé in many wine markets.
Of course it is important to recognise that these figures are coming off a low base, but the steady increase is very encouraging. Looking at the profiles of the South African brands that have invested time in the Japanese market, it is clear that the opportunity for growth has been identified.
The increase in South African sales has been largely in line with the hype and interest around the FIFA World Cup. The impact of these events in on the Japanese consumer cannot be overstated. There are many tales around the industry of South African wine shelves selling out on the day that the country was announced as the host nation. The fascination and interest in all things South African during this period has had a real impact on the desirability of local wines in the Japanese market. Sustaining that over the next 12 to 18 months will be very important.
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Tags: Fairview, Japan, Mottox, South African wine, wine market
It is kidding season at Fairview, with more baby goats arriving every day. But we also have another little animal who has taken up residence in one of our kidding sheds. This baby steenbok ewe was found in one of the Fairview vineyards. Read the rest of this entry »
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It is always a welcoming sign on the farm when our Fairview does (the female goats!) start to have their kids. It is a sign that the seasons have changed and that we are heading towards spring time in the winelands. Even though kidding season has been happening every year for three decades, it is still an exciting time and each year we look forward to the cute new kids joining our herd. Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: baby goats, Fairview cheese, goats, goats' milk, kids, Paarl
