The City
Cellar will be temporarily open for three weeks as The Stables Wine
Estate have recently received their liquor license. The public now have
the opportunity to stock up on wine for the festive season before the
City Cellars close early in the new year for the final shop-fitting to
take place.
Take a
trip to the Umhlanga Lighthouse Mall to visit the new City Cellar and
see what's in store.
This
City Cellar
will be a fully active wine cellar that will produce approximately 30
tons of KZN wine each year. This site has been identified and currently
being designed and plans are
currently being formalised
to convert the natural cellar in the property to a cave style cellar.
It will act as a Gateway To The Midlands…a cellar in the city where The
Stables Wine Estate winemakers will produce wine from grapes harvested
from The Stables Wine Estate vineyards and will be the Champagne House
where each years vintage of Method Champagne will be produced, it will
offer wine tastings (not only of KZN wines but also a selection of
quality wines from Cape estates), tours, food and wine pairings,
celebratory chefs and visiting winemakers from around the world.
Members of the public will be able take part and watch the winemaking
process; which will mean activity throughout the year, not only at
harvest and crushing times, this will include disgorging of the
outstanding KZN Method Champagnes. In fact the winemaker will be on hand
to disgorge your own bottle of Stables vintage method champagne with
skilful flick of the wrist using a sabre.
It will be marketed to tourists that do not have time to drive out to
the Midlands
such as
tourists from cruise
liners as
The City Cellar will
give them
the
opportunity to experience KZN wines.
It
will
also act as
a teaser to the community to experience the wine estate and will entice
people out to the wine estate to stay over at the lodge, as it is the
experience of The Stables Wine Estate that the Midlands is seen as an
overnight trip not typically a day visit.
The
City
Cellar
will also be positioned and marketed to the community within Durban as a
destination, not a once off visit.
The
regular visits
from
famous and celebratory chefs, where wine and food pairings will be
demonstrated in addition to visiting winemakers to showcase their own
wines from as far a
field as France.
All this will increase and weave a wine culture into the KZN community
which in turn increases demand.
As more wine estates establish in the Midlands, the
City
Cellar
will be a differentiator to these other estates and will compliment the
fact that The Stables Wine Estate are first to market as well as a tool
to promote the region as a wine producer and to promote other wineries
in the Province.
As the market leaders in the KZN wine industry The Stables Wine Estate
has a responsibility to set the standard for competitors establishing
themselves, as it is The Stables Wine Estate that will determine at this
early stage how far the industry will go.
The
most obvious way in which this is being done is releasing wines produced
from the fruits of KZN vines that are of superb quality and award
winning as demonstrated already in 2007 where two awards have been
achieved by The Stables Wine Estate for KZN wine of origin wines –
Sauvignon Blanc at the Swiss International Airline Wine Awards and most
recently Pinotage at the South African National Young Wine Awards.
It will be a 5 star venue and décor, that will be open during the day as
well as evenings. The décor of the venue will have the same look and
feel as the venue in the Midlands with additional sophistication
appropriate to a champagne producing cellar with striking crystal
chandeliers and glasses.
