Glenwood Vineyards: The Ultimate Gourmet Sushi Experience

Food and Wine Experiences

May 7, 2021

Calling all sushi lovers!! If you are looking for the ultimate sushi experience which includes the most amazing jaw droppingly good sushi, fantastic wine and breathtaking scenery then stop looking because I have just the place for you. Literally off the beaten track (a kilometer or two of gravel road) hidden in a secret valley in Franschoek is your gourmet sushi heaven – Glenwood Vineyards.

About Glenwood

Before we dive into eating the most delectable sushi ever – let me first introduce you to Glenwood. Manners first of course! Glenwood was establish in 1984 (it’s an 80’s baby; hence why so cool!) This wine estate designed from scratch and has manage to produce some award winning wines for both the local and international markets. Currently 25 hectares under vine they produce 90,000 bottles of wine each year. What makes Glenwood extra special is that they adhere to extremely strict farming (sustainable) practices that protect the natural beauty that the farm surrounds including the fynbos!

If you decide to visit – I definitely suggest you visit on a good clear sunny day. So you can sit out side under the massive old oak trea and enjoying the natural beauty of the farm while savouring every tasty sushi morsel.

Glenwood Wine and Tasting

Chris wine guide at Glenwood — Meet Chris – Our Glenwood Wine Guide Super Star!

We had the honour of having Chris as our wine guide and he was absolutely phenonmal his passion and knowledge of Glenwood wines is absolutely invaluable. Honestly, nothing worse than visiting a wine farm, the food is great, the wine is absolutely spectacular, however your wine guide as they would say in Afrikaans “net n mond vol tande”. They can’t even tell anything about the wine. It utterly ruins the experience, and all the hard work in making superb wine falling flat.

Thankfully at Glenwood you do not have to worry about having this kind of experience. Chris took it a step extra further and took us on a cellar tour and we even got a sneak peak at future wine babies.

Glenwood is famous for their Chardonnay. I had the wonderful privilege of tasting the Glenwood Grand Duc Chardonnay 2019. Now my Chardonnay loving friends, what makes this chardonnay so intriguing? The winemaker makes use of wild yeast for fermentation. The juice is kept 24 months on the lees in new french Oak Barrels. This then creates a rich and opulent wine with dried peaches and apricots. You can actually keep this wine in the perfect cellaring conditions for 7 to 12 years. Yes my wine friends and that is for a white wine!!! Only 800 bottles produced and sells for R600 a bottle. It is an absolutely treat and worth the spoil! This wine is one to be enjoyed with good food around a dinner table with loads of chatter and laughter.

However for a summer Friday afternoon it was a little to heavy. In the end I just could not help myself and was sipping on the Save the Rhino Rosè for the remaining afternoon. Glenwood in fact makes 2 wines which is specifically dedicated in generating its profits for donation to the Rhino Revolution, NPO, whose objective is to protect rhinos.

Wine tastings at Glenwood cost R100 where you can taste 5 wines, spending R500 will waiver your tasting fee! 🙂

Glenwood’s Ultimate Gourmet Sushi Experience

Now we come to the best part – the Sushi! Guys this comes with a massive WARNING!!! Why? Because it sets the bar incredibly high that Sushi will never be the same again. Just looking at the menu, I didn’t know what on earth to choose. There is such a delectable selection it makes it super hard to make a mind up. In the end we just told our host: “Surprise us!” Indeed we were surprised! We were hit with all the Glenwood’s favourites. Think Salmon roses with a “rice krispies sprinkles” (okay… okay… not actually rice krispies, but tampura crumbs batter).

OH… OH!! Sushimi lovers??? The best EVER!! I mean salmon which is ever so slightly seared served with a saikyosu-miso & tataki sauce giving sushimi a whole new level. We talking rich umami with a gentle hint of smokiness. I’m drooling all over my laptop as I’m typing this post. That was just the beginning. Each and every sushi we had just left a flavour bomb of explosion in your mouth. It is so good that you actually do not want to do the usual dipping of soy sauce, ginger and wasabi. It feels like you are doing the biggest crime of injustice to the KZN born Sushi Master Chef. So this sushi is a little more pricey than your average sushi joint – however this is NOT your average Sushi!

Nature’s Window

Glenwood has a natural beauty that is quiet unique. It actually doesn’t feel like Franschhoek and for that matter even feel like you in SA. Some may say it has a Scotland vibe going on. The luscious valley and surrounding mountains is best enjoyed from Nature’s Window, which is Glenwood’s tasting room in the mountain, here you can sip and enjoy the Grand Duc wine range. The walk takes approximately twenty-minutes, ascends some 70 meters and passes through masses of indigenous fynbos. This I would love to do the next time I visit Glenwood!