The Worcester area is wonderful to visit during winter. Why? Anyone who drove from Cape Town during July, would have enjoyed the remarkable experience of the effect of winter storms on the mountains en route and around the eponymous town. Driving through Du Toitskloof on the N1, the sheer cliffs towering close to and above the road are brought alive with roaring waterfalls cascading to the river below. As the pass emerges into the Breede River valley, the river demonstrates why it’s called Breede or wide river, the rains having broadened it; driving across the bridge, with the raging river so close is another excitement. But it’s the mountains in front that provide the real drama; snow covers the tops and a lot further down than usual; the storms brought beauty as well as damage.

Wineries around the region have the perfect wine for the freezing winter evenings: fortified. A few are Port styles; Aan de Doorns lists a Cape Ruby from tinta barocca and Stettyn Family Wines, Cape Vintage, another Port style produced from  Portuguese varieties souzao, tinta barocca and touriga nacional and described as ‘fine and cellarworthy’.

The fortified wine most associated with the valley is muscadel. Generically speaking, muscadel is a jerepigo, made from any white or red variety by adding grape alcohol to the unfermented grape juice. While all muscadel is jerepigo, not all jerepigos are muscadel; chenin blanc and pinotage, to name but two, are also made as jerepigos.

Muscadel, however, is made from muscat blanc à petit grains; the grape is white but has a red mutation, which is also used for muscadel; the colour coming from a brief start of fermentation, then fortified. Many winemakers produce both a white and a red muscadel; De Wet Cellar just outside Worcester is one but the winery probably the most closely associated with muscadel is Nuy. Their muscadels, both white and red, have a reputation for long ageing, 20 years is not unusual and many older ones are awarded in the museum class on local shows.

Most muscadels are unwooded, though a few of the bigger companies have kept some in large, old barrels, where they develop nutty, raisin deliciousness. In 2010, Nuy took the step of ageing some of their red muscadel in older oak barrels, not for a few months, as they might with other, non-fortified wines but several years. The first release was 2013, which had spent three years in barrels; 2015 followed after its five-year slumber in oak and this year saw the release of 2016. As an unwooded youngster, muscadel has an unmistakeable grapey, tealeaf character; even after six years, 2016 hasn’t lost that inherent grapiness, and gained a caramel character, the fortifying spirit is warmingly smooth.

There’s a story attached to the name Barbieri Idro. It honours the World War II Italian prisoner of war, who, during his incarceration was stationed on Sonja, a farm near Nuy which supplies the winery with grapes. Once, when he was loading barrels of red muscadel onto a train, one broke loose, hit and killed him. A tragic event, but now a delicious wine honouring the man associated with this winery.

One of few private wineries in the area, Leipzig Country House and Winery, just down the road from Nuy, has been making wine since the 1890s but production came to a halt in 1963 when Nuy Co-operative was founded. Fifty years later the Smit family started making their own wine again, including the White Leipzig blend famed for attracting the attention of the royal family on their visit in the1940s. A new cellar was constructed for this new winemaking era but guests to Leipzig Country House will see in the reception area remains of the concrete vats and frescos of the old cellar, which have been left as reminder of the past.

There’s snow here too on the Langeberg, the long mountains above Leipzig, which stretch all the way to Robertson and beyond. 

Sunny winter days with snow-capped peaks and a glass of muscadel; a Worcester winter can be rewarding.

Angela Lloyd