The Black Oystercatcher Wines will celebrate Southern Tip Day, on 16 May, with wine, chocolate and local cuisine in Agulhas, close to the most southerly tip of Africa. The wine and chocolate tasting day will showcase some of the Cape Agulhas region’s local products.
The Black Oystercatcher, Strandveld Wines and Gaboli Chocolates will host the tasting at the Twisted Fork Restaurant in Agulhas. The event is being organised by the Travelling Tortoise, a tourism industry marketer, and will be broadcast on Radio Overberg during the day.
The aim of the tasting is to encourage tourists to visit the Agulhas region, and enjoy its many products. The Agulhas area is the newest wine-making region in South Africa, with its extreme climate and geology resulting in very distinctive tasting wines. With the Indian and Atlantic Oceans meeting at Cape Agulhas, the area receives cool winds, particularly at the time the grapes ripen. As a result, the berries grown here are small and compact, providing notable fruit flavours.
The Agulhas region is also a renowned biodiversity hotspot, with many extremely rare fynbos species found here. Black Oystercatcher and Strandveld are both members of the Nuwejaars Wetland Special Management Area, a protected area working to conserve the unique fauna and flora of the region.
Southern Tip Day celebrates the day Bartolomeu Dias sailed round the southern tip of Africa, on 16 May 1488. At the time, he named it after an Irish monk, St Brendan, and it became known as ‘Ponte de Sao Brendao’.
For more information on the tasting, or to book your ticket, email: agulhas@travellingtortoise.com.