Vergenoegd Löw & Dalewood Fromage - The Feast Worth Waiting For

Two farms, a beautifully laid, bountiful spread of harvest tables, and a shared belief that the best food starts in the soil.

The occasion? A regenerative harvest lunch at Vergenoegd Löw, in its newly refurbished Clara's Barn, in collaboration with the award-winning Dalewood Fromage farmstead cheesemakers.

Wandering through the bar with Vergenoegd Löw's fine-beaded, apple- and white blossom-scented Cap Classique Chenin Blanc Brut in hand, we admired the contrast of the whitewashed Cape Dutch walls, big black timber doors and a long bar glowing beneath a chandelier of hand-gathered sea glass.

A warm Mosbolletjie waited with miraculously melt-in-your-mouth Dalewood Jersey butter, its salty, savoury infusion impossibly moreish.

Then came the harvest tables, laden with fire-roasted vegetables, Dalewood Wineland Brie and burnt fynbos honey; delicate grilled Cape fish, already dressed in full-cream Jersey yoghurt and dill; Vergenoegd Löw's Dexter biltong; and charred baby leeks with Cape pear, walnut, fynbos honey and Blue Camembert.

From the fire came the carved table with Dexter beef, red wine and bone-marrow jus, melted Lanquedoc with wild thyme; a sweet and sour farm chicken curry with Jersey yoghurt and grilled lemon; tallow roast potato gratin; fire-roasted seasonal greens with Jersey butter and lemon; and a farm salad of stone fruit and garden leaves.

Vergenoegd Löw's wines kept pace: Sauvignon Blanc 2025 and Merlot 2024 with the first harvest, Chardonnay 2025 and Cabernet Sauvignon 2025 with the second, and a Cape Tawny NV to come with the cheese. The Chardonnay, all green pear and mellow spice, was my favourite of the day.

Between courses, Vergenoegd Löw's Executive Chef Michelle Theron and Georgina Visser, one of Dalewood's owner's daughters, spoke about why regenerative farming matters so much today. Georgina's passion for her family's farm was infectious: Dalewood makes its cheese from the ground up, using only its own Jersey milk, which makes it a true estate cheese.

Michelle, Cape Town-born and one of South Africa's Top 10 Women Chefs in 2021, is as modest as she is creative. What I so admire in her ethos is that she never hosts a lunch for the sake of it: she waits until the produce is at its peak, then lets the farm and the season shape the menu.

Then, the cheese and preserve installation, to explore at leisure: Dalewood's Brie Superlatif, Boland, Huguenot, Simond and Wineland Blue Brie, a Wineland Donut Brie crowned with Vergenoegd Löw green figs and honeyed nuts, and a pantry of preserves, chutneys and estate honeycomb.

And for the finale, a warm Cape apple pudding with Dalewood Jersey yoghurt cream, caramelised apple, Huguenot caramel and a drizzle of fynbos honey, followed by Moerkoffie and a small treat of Dalewood Jersey butter and Mosbolletjie fudge.

An afternoon like this makes you want to eat with the seasons: two farms, one table, and a lunch that proved the best food and wine really do start in the soil.