The annual Stoep Tasting Wine Weekend, hosted by Karoo Wine Club, is one of the premier wine tourism weekends in South Africa and showcases top independent wine and spirit producers from South Africa and abroad.
Since inception in Graaff Reinet, Stoep Tasting celebrated its 10th anniversary in May 2023!
For the past three years Nieu Bethesda is also incorporated in this event.
Tasters and buyers stroll the streets of these two picturesque Karoo towns, from stoep to stoep, to taste and purchase some of the finest wines. Stoep Tasting also became synonymous with several side events where restaurants offer various food and wine pairing events during the weekend.
Quilt & Wine Pairing at Stoeptasting
A unique pairing of six art quilts with six prizewinning wines from Montpellier de Tulbagh!
The inaugural event took place during the Stoep Tasting event in May 2023 in the Cellar of Bruno’s at the Bethesda in Nieu Bethesda.
The concept:– six quilt artists are invited to participate. Each receive a specific wine from Montpellier to use as inspiration to create their own unique textile art pieces.
Quilt & Wine Pairing 2025:
Another six textile artists will be using a specific wine from Montpellier as inspiration to create their unique textile art piece!
Date: Friday, 23 May 2025
Venue: The Cellar at Bruno’s at the Bethesda, Nieu Bethesda.
Time: 11:30
Quilt & Wine Pairing 2024:
As the guests tasted each wine, while listening to the tasting notes, they were challenged to pair a textile art piece with that wine.
The art piece for that specific wine is then revealed, and the artist statement shared.
The Quilt & Wine pairing results – 2024:
Wine: Spyseniersberg Red Blend
Quilt Title: A Drop of Red
This piece aims to create an abstract, complementary experience between the Montpellier Spyseniersberg red blend and quilt making, not in an apparent or literal sense, but in the blending of an ephemeral concept, an intense immersion and a consuming passion.
I enjoy incorporating traditional quilt blocks in art quilt designs, making references and connections that may not be obviously identifiable. Serendipitously, I discovered a traditional quilt block called “Montpelier”. When you experience the full-bodied Spyseniersberg red, I hope that you visually connect with the abstract representation of red fruits, plums and rose petals in the quilt.
Diana Vandeyar – Cape Town, Western Cape
Wine: MCC Chardonnay 2017
Quilt Title: Carpe Diem
In response to Montpelier de Tulbagh Chardonnay Méthode Cap Classique (redolent of luxury, tradition and celebration) I worked on silk, creating a shimmering painterly look. Traces of narrative are open to interpretation, as subtly suggestive as the wine. The title, the chapel and painted wreath refer to the joyous wedding celebrations held at the winery in Tulbagh. To convey a sense of Huguenot history, I layered faintly-inscribed iconography derived from my own visual lexicon and its universals.
Catherine Knox – Underberg, KwaZulu-Natal
Wine: MCC Pinot Noir 2017
Quilt Title: Explosions
This work depicts that fresh and intense sensation of MCC Pinot Noir bubbles exploding on the palette in waves of fresh strawberries mingled with piquant black cherries and an under taste of mushroom. The taste experience is so intense that the champagne glasses explode.
These exploding glasses are appliquéd onto a pieced background of patterned maroon fabrics that reference the wine’s provenance of red grapes grown in ordered vineyards.
Mariss Stevens – Makhanda, Eastern Cape
Wine: Chenin Blanc 2023
Quilt Title: The Chapel in the Valley
Having tasted Montpellier’s Chenin Blanc with its mouth tingling crispness, I was pleasantly surprised by the wine! Being a lover of mandarin orange, passion fruit and pears, apples and grapes, this wine has it all. My focus on my ‘wine pairing quilt’ is on the wonderful view of the vineyard of the Montpellier Wine Estate in Tulbagh itself. I could not help but include the glorious Chapel where so many special memorable events are held.
Joy Clark – Umtentweni, KwaZulu-Natal
Wine: Shiraz 2016
Quilt Title: Through the Vine
The brief was to create a quilt featuring the Shiraz cultivar. Once I received the promised bottle of wine and tasting notes, I was immediately struck by the whimsical chapel on the label! I instinctively knew I wanted to create leaves and vines, perfect subject matter for fibre art textures and envisaged a landscape interpretation of the chapel with the beautiful mountain as backdrop.
The tasting notes of Shiraz was included in the composition – coffee, chocolate and black berries.
Marilyn Pretorius – Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape
Wine: Rose 2023
Quilt Title: Vines and Wine
My first thought when I saw the full bottle of wine, was: “That wine is such a beautiful colour!” I spent a while trying to assess the colour and found it to be quite complex and not easy to describe, but here goes – it’s a pale strawberry pink, tinged with a tiny touch of a light rooibos tea colour. I used a variety of pinks to represent the multifaceted colour of the wine. I also introduced other colours and designs which represented the taste of the wine, and the vineyards and natural surroundings of the Tulbagh Valley terroir.
The front of the quilt is created almost entirely of silk fabrics, to signify the beauty, elegance and rich history of Montpellier Wine Estate in Tulbagh, which was established in 1714.
Odette Tolksdorf – Somerset West, Western Cape
The Quilt & Wine pairing results – 2023:
Wine: Montpellier MCC Chardonnay
Quilt title: Bubbly, please
Lady Bollinger famously said of this style of wine:
“I drink it when I’m happy and when I’m sad. Sometimes I drink it when I’m alone. When I have company I consider it obligatory. I trifle with it if I’m not hungry and drink it when I am. Otherwise, I never touch it – unless I’m thirsty.”
Using a variety of fabrics and yarns, some repurposed and reclaimed, others hand-dyed and painted I have layered these using raw edge appliqué, free motion machine embroidery and quilting techniques to capture the lively and zesty yet elegantly celebratory nature of this wine.
Jeanne de Beer – Jeffreys Bay, Eastern Cape
Wine: Montpellier MCC Pinot Noir
Quilt title: The Pinot Pops
I used Thai silk fabric – the colour of which shows off the MCC Brut Pinot Noir. The bubbles were interpreted by using silk organza and a very fine tulle.
The whole background was hand quilted, representing the texture of the bubbles. Small brass rings were added as the small bubbles trying to escape.
The variegated thread with small bits of green and tiny red beads hint at the berries.
Ina Meyer – Great Brak River, Southern Cape
Wine: Spyseniersberg White Blend
Quilt title: Synthesis
On their company portfolio, Montpellier has the following quote: “Wine is bottled poetry”.
This inspired me to write a haiku which incorporates the characteristics of the wine. The sun-dyed background fabric using plant material is reminiscent of the grapes that need sun to thrive. The four different bottle shapes represent the four cultivars that make up the blend in this wine.
Floral, tropical, fruity and spice are attributes that suggest the green, brown, orange and yellow colours used. The words of the haiku have been added
using silk with the curly fibres symbolizing the tendrils of the vines.
Dal Botha – Pringle Bay, Western Cape
Wine: Montpellier Chenin Blanc
Quilt title: “Chenin Blanc”
The inspiration for this quilt came largely from the colours which I associated with the landscape in which the vines are cultivated, and with the colours found in the wine itself. Therefore I have used earth colours for the terroir, greens for the lands, purples for the surrounding mountains and combinations of yellows/golds/greens for the actual wine, in the background which has been machine quilted.
The contents of the wine glass represent some of the important components of the estate and the winemaking process. I have appliquéd the various shapes of the buildings, bottles and glasses into the central wineglass motif and machine quilted the grape motif over them.
Sheila Walwyn – Cape Town, Western Cape
Wine: Montpellier Cabernet Sauvignon
Quilt title: The whole is greater than the sum of the parts
This statement is as true for the wine as it is true for the quilt. The sky above Montpellier is represented by an antique quilt made in 1916. Vintage tapestry embroidery forms the mountain backdrop, framing the vista of the terroir producing this wine.
Quilt lines imitate the topography in the vineyards. Circular quilting lines represent both the rocky soil type and the shape of the grapes.
The wine’s most prominent characteristic on the nose is the berries. These, together with grapes, are scattered across the quilt landscape.
Wilma Smit – Oudtshoorn, Southern Cape
Wine: Montpellier Shiraz
Quilt title: Winner!
I have tried to capture the essence of this excellent award winning wine and to portray its rich qualities apparent to the nose and palate through my design and choice of colours.
I chose to keep my raw edge appliqué design simple and cubic using fabric as my medium applying acrylic paints, bleach, gold leaf and printing to enhance my design.
Macky Cilliers – Aston Bay, Eastern Cape