The long weekend at the start of May will see increased traffic on the normally tranquil Route 62 to the Little Karoo.
The hospitable folk of Calitzdorp and their cellars are pulling out all stops to ensure their 2009 festival in the country's port capital is both memorable and diverse in nature, offering sporting, cultural, botanical and environmental events, along with good food and fine wine.
From May 1 to 3, Boplaas, De Krans, Calitzdorp Cellar, Axe Hill, Peter Bayly and TTT Cellars will pour tastings of their award-winning reserve ports, their affordable ruby and tawny ports, and their comprehensive range of red, white and sparkling wines at their wineries. A symposium on marketing of port and Portuguese red wine cultivars will take place on the first day, while grape stomping is a light-hearted alternative. Local charities will benefit from the auction of impossibly huge bottles of port.
The energetic will probably sign up for the half-marathon, the cycling contest, or angling competition, and devotees of boules will be holding the South African finals over the weekend. Others will opt for a treasure hunt or cellar crawl by tractor.
The old station ticket office is the venue for expos and lectures on the succulents of the region, Calitzdorp leopards, and the start of a birding tour. Chef Francois Ferreira will pair local wine with ostrich fare and partner port with chocolate, and with heightened appetites, visitors can wander through the old station where food stalls will tempt with country goodies.
Village restaurants and guest houses are dreaming up Portuguese-style dinners. As in past years, the dominoes contest is a highlight for fans, while others will enjoy strolling through this village, founded in 1821, that still harbours delightful examples of mid-19th century homes, flat-roofed, pitched-roofed and double-storeyed.
While port makes the focus, make space in your car boots for unfortified bargains: De Krans and Boplaas Family Vineyards alone offer outstanding red wines and blends based on Tinta Barocca and Touriga Nacional at astonishing prices, and their conventional reds are not to be missed. White wine drinkers will find delicious summer quaffers and rosé and bubbly fans on tight budgets are well catered for.
For Port Festival inquiries, call Juanita Fourie at 084 734 6155. For accommodation queries, call the tourism office at 044 213 3775.
As if to remind us there are other Cape regions producing quality port wines, Monis of Paarl has just released its first vintage port - even if the components were grown in Calitzdorp.
The launch took the form of a delectable lunch at Savoy Cabbage, where guests were greeted with glasses of chilled fino, Dirkie Christowitz's world-class classic sherry, before settling to mushroom and port consommé followed by loin of gemsbok dressed with spiced port sauce. Port syrup, drizzled over substantial apple and sultana pancakes, preceded a finale of gorgonzola with figs macerated in port. This was a menu announcing that autumn is here.
Monis is Paarl's original fortified wine cellar, established in 1906, with the new release marking a century of fine winemaking. Christowitz's range includes a muscadel, tawny port, and four excellent sherries, which I think are the undisputed stars of this venerable winery.
The Monis vintage port 2006 is in contemporary classic style, relatively dry, with a hint of leather, although I missed the rich concentration of plummy fruit one associates with this fortified wine.
Opinions around the table varied, with some feeling it offers good value at R70, others deciding that it needs more time to develop its potential.
No discussion of Cape port and its future ends without returning to the thorny issue of name changes and the European Union's demands.
Our producers seem to have fulfilled demands about ceasing to use the word "port" on their export bottles, and agreeing to change the local labels as well, but there still seems to be no sign of the promised financial compensation from Europe.