Ten Years Of Fantastic Farmers' Markets At Windmeul

Windmeul Cellar is celebrating a decade of delicious farmers’ markets on Saturday, 5 October. This amazing fresh produce market has drawn the crowds for the past ten years with unbeatable local products.

Cheers to a decade of delicious farmers’ markets at Windmeul with (left to right) Mart-Mari Truter (wine sales); Johnny Fortuin (senior cellar assistant) and Danie Marais (cellar master).

The co-operative cellar opened its tasting venue in 2006, which enabled them to broaden their offering to the public. According to cellar master Danie Marais, the introduction of a farmers’ market was a natural extension of their activities to appeal to more visitors. “We host the farmers’ market on the first Saturday of every month, except in January and it has become a unique lifestyle offering. Wine lovers like an entertaining and educational wine experience and the market provides the perfect opportunity for them to taste and buy or wines as well as delicious produce. The Windmeul farmers’ market has proven to be an extremely popular meeting place and draws market goers from far and wide. Historically, the local farming community brought their grain to be milled at the windmill that was on site and it is great to see this tradition continuing,” mentions Marais.

Marais started the market by personally approaching producers and suppliers and carefully sourcing top quality products from the region. “Windmeul wines have become synonymous with quality and craftmanship we wanted to continue this with the farmers’ market. Our focus is on fresh and preserved food products as well as excellent quality meat and chicken. Consumers have become more demanding about the products they buy and artisanal products that have been crafted with care are very trendy at the moment. We also feel that it is important to be proudly Paarl and to support local and sustainable businesses,” explains Marais.

Celebrate the Windmeul farmers market’s 10th anniversary on 5 October with live music by Herman Kleynhans from the group TWEE and Wynand Windpomp. Come and enjoy a lively atmosphere with great kids’ entertainment and lucky draws with fun prizes throughout the day. The market runs from 08:00 to 12:00, but visitors can sit back and relax with live music and wine sales only wrapping up at 15h00. During the farmers’ market, the tasting room offers ten percent discount on wines and wine sales are open till 15:00.

Windmeul Cellar was first established in 1944 and currently harvests approximately 13 000 tons of grapes annually. The cellar recently hit the headlines when the renowned British wine critic Tim Atkin named it the best co-operative cellar in the country in his recent South African report, which is considered a benchmark publication in the global wine industry. The cellar also performs consistently well in varietal competitions such as the ABSA Top 10 Pinotage competition.

For more information, contact 021 869 8100 or visit www.windmeul.com. Follow @WindmeulKelder on social media for the latest news and updates.