Nothing Cheesy about the Polo or Bien Donné
words: Maryna StrachAn

Being a regular on the social scene, I often get invited to all kinds of events. Some are cheap and cheerful, others are sophisticated and some just plain dull. Recently, however, I had the most fabulous fun-filled weekend any girl could wish for.

It started off with the Sabrage Masters Polo day (the horsey kind, no connection to Volkswagen) at the stunning Val de Vie Polo Estate located between Paarl and Franschhoek. I could SOOO see myself living there!

Now, let’s just get this straight, I knew absolutely nothing about polo, except that it involved hot guys in tight pants on horses, who hit a ball with a rather long croquet-type stick…

Soon after arriving, I picked up a pamphlet explaining the rules and all the jazz about ‘chukkas’ (rounds), handicaps and committing a foul by ‘crossing the line’.

For the main game, we saw team Val de Vie vs Pirelli with the home side winning, albeit rather narrowly. The MC at the event was no other than Sasha Martinengo from 5FM and Supersport F1GP fame and he had us all in stitches with his commentary.

After the actual game, the party started with lots and LOTS of bubbles (from Anura’s MCC to Piérre Jourdan Belle Rose and Veuve Clicquot) and, yes, Patron. I’m blaming the Italians, Sasha and Adriano Zurini (Sabrage owner) for that, as my friends always know one of my favourite sayings to be, “Let’s go out, get drunk and fall over”.

Usually it ends at the getting drunk stage, but on this particular occasion I actually fell over. In my defence though, I will add that I was wearing rather high heels and trying to walk on cobbles, so any ladies out there reading this will completely understand. Well, that’s MY story and I’m sticking to it!

On the Sunday, however, feeling rather fragile (I’m referring to my scarred knee, of course…) I made my way to Bien Donné for the annual Cheese and Wine festival and what a great day it was.

It was much bigger than I expected, with hundreds of stalls selling their goodies. Mainly cheese, wine, olives and olive oil and all kinds of other bits in between,

Val de Vie Polo

such as the one stall which sold all kinds of paté’s ranging from kudu to zebra, crocodile and ostrich, amongst others.

There were a whole host of wines to taste, which I did with great vigour, because it really helped lift my fragile factor from the night before. You know the whole hair of the dog thing…
KWV did an excellent job at making us feel welcome and to ensure that everyone enjoyed the day. There was a host of live entertainment and large open areas where one could sit and enjoy the fresh and tasty produce bought whilst lazing the day away in the sun.

I also got to see our very own Nataniël in action, cooking up a very quick and easy three-course meal, but with his very own funny twists and tales, all the while ensuring that he mentioned that one of the sponsors of the event was in fact Checkers.

The funniest bit was when he said that Checkers stock several hundred different types of cheeses and that if there were a couple of lesbians in the furthest northern corner of Hungary who made cheese from hedgehog milk, that Checkers would indeed source it! I almost hosed myself!!

This is certainly an extremely fun event and if you haven’t been there before, I’d highly recommend you make the effort to do so next year. All of the cheeses and wines we had were stunning, although I didn’t notice a single blue-veined cheese on show, which I found quite odd…

By the end of the day I was thoroughly exhausted and am very shocked and highly embarrassed to admit that I was actually WINED OUT! I simply couldn’t face another drop of wine, but I’m glad to say that didn’t last too long.

Hope to see you all next month at The Wine Show Jo’burg and please feel free to come and say “Hi” if you see me hanging around, no doubt with a glass in hand!

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