I’ve been dying to go the Pick ‘n Pay Stellenbosch Wine Festival since I moved to Cape Town but tickets were always sold out whenever I realised I actually needed to buy it – and the same thing nearly happened this year too 😱!

The event

The Pick ‘n Pay Stellenbosch Wine Festival took place 6 -7 April and was held on the North Wharf at the V&A Waterfront for the very first time. It features the best selection of wines from the Stellenbosch region, a delicious selection of food and the Pick ‘n Pay Tasting Room (tickets were sold out). General access tickets were R150 and included a wine glass and 20 wine tasting coupons, while General Admission + Tasting Room tickets were R180, which also gave you access to Pick ‘n Pay’s Tasting Room.

The venue

The setup was cute but I don’t think the venue was suitable for the amount of attendees. It felt extremely crammed. We eventually just settled for a seat close to the entrance and stayed put, taking turns to get wine, so that we didn’t lose our seats.

The food and wine

The variety of wines on offer was great. But if you know me and if you follow me on Instagram, you know I’m more of a craft beer person and don’t really know much about wine. What I did love was the coupon system. At first, I wasn’t too sure how the coupon system worked but you could use it to ‘fund’ a taster or a glass so I think it worked really well for those who’d prefer just using the coupons to taste and decide on which bottles they’d like to buy or those who preferred to use the coupon to buy a glass of wine. I think this is a great system for beer festivals to consider.


I loved the food variety on offer from Pick ‘n Pay. I didn’t get many pictures because of how full it was but it was decent. We ordered a Gourmet Cheese Burger for R50 from the Pick ‘n Pay Burger Me food truck. I’m not quite sure what was gourmet about it because it was, literally, a normal cheese burger. It wasn’t amazing but it wasn’t bad either.

We also got a Cheese and Charcuterie Platter, a selection of local cheeses with cured hams, biltong, preserves and fresh breads, for R120. It was okay. Unfortunately, not as great as the platters usually on offer by Lorian’s Cheeses at festivals in Johannesburg.

We really wanted to get the Grilled Steak Board (150g sirloin steak, 150g rump steak with baby spinach, hummus, veggie crisps, baby tomatoes and marinated olives) for R120 but it actually slipped our minds and we just had supper elsewhere afterwards.

I must say the pricing was reasonable.

Live music

The live music was amazing – great entertainment all afternoon. As I mentioned the area was a bit crammed so we didn’t really sit where the music was happening. But I have to give a big shout-out to the sound guys because the sound was great and we could hear what was happening really well, even though we sat close to the entrance.

The bathrooms

I didn’t use the bathrooms but I saw it was not those blue portable toilets, which is already a thumbs up! You know how good I feel about using a decent toilet facility.

Verdict

Overall, it was a wonderful event. The weather was great and the atmosphere was vibrant. 8/10. 👌