Artful Women Behind the Stove and the Vine at Solo Studios 2024

Solo Studios 2024

Besides the power of art to move us, Solos Studios 2024 celebrates the power of women as artists, subjects, muses, gallery owners and curators. With such important artists as Sharon Bischoff, Emma Willemse, Lizette Visser, Caryn Dorrington and Hannelie Strydom, gallery owners Astrid McLeod of RK Contemporary and Mary Walker, one half of the team at Pictorex, there is strong female energy throughout the intimate art weekend in Riebeek Kasteel this Women’s Day Weekend on 9-11 August. This year, Solo Studios is going beyond the canvas to share other modes of expression: music, performance and of course, food and wine.

Here they highlight three participants who are superstars in the realms of food and winemaking:

From Coast to Countryside: Isabella Niehaus Serves Up Culinary Delights

The West Coast’s loss is the Riebeek Valley’s gain. Isabella Niehaus, the well-known chef who cooked a Sunday long table at her Langebaan home for over 12 years is now diving deeper into the bounty of Swartland in her Riebeek Kasteel kitchen. Furthermore, the internationally renowned cookbook author will bring her personal style – a flair for combining the rustic with fine dining prepared with the best of locally grown ingredients — to Solo Studios 2024 with two Long Table dinners, in the exquisite setting of the kitchen of The Valley Potager on Friday 09 August and Saturday 10 August. Niehaus, who modestly describes herself as a self-taught cook rather than a chef, was recognised by the World Gourmand Book Awards with both first place for her book Duinhuis in the category of entertainment and best vegan cookbook for her collaboration with artist Louis Janse van Vuuren entitled There’s a Vegan on My Stoep. What she refers to as “Bellas Long Table” is always a warm, down-to-earth and social place of delicious eating. “My food is a combination of rustic and fine dining, always seafood-oriented and about using the freshest ingredients from the Swartland and West Coast.” The high point of each meal was interacting with guests in the open kitchen. “There’s something very special about the chef chatting with guests, without any formal division of the cooking and eating space. I love listening to their stories, and by the end of the meal, I feel like we have become friends.” This intimate environment will be replicated at the Solo Studios dinners, with an easy flow of food, conversation and good wine from GreatHeart Wines.

Great Hearted Winemaking

Gynore Hendricks is a winemaker with a great heart … literally. Born and bred in the Swartland, the 30-year-old is the winemaker at Great Heart Wines, the staff-empowered winery owned entirely by the employees of the Mullineux and Leeu Passant wineries, an initiative started by Chris and Andrea Mullineux in 2020. She will be sharing her wines and her story at Isabella Niehaus’s Long Table dinners at Solo Studios 2024 on 09 and 10 August. Hendricks is a graduate of the prestigious Cape Winemaker’s Guild Protege Program, which she was selected for after finishing her BAgric degree in Cellar Technology from Elsenburg Agricultural Institute. As fortune would have it, she was placed at Mullineux and was mentored by legendary winemaker Andrea Mullineux, who recognised her talent and potential. In 2018 Hendricks was appointed assistant winemaker and it was a natural evolution that led to her being named winemaker at Great Heart, where she works in the winery with vineyards hailing from Swartland, Stellenbosch and Elgin. “What has surprised me the most about becoming a winemaker is the amazing culture of support between our local winemakers as well as between the different suppliers and bodies within the South African wine industry,” says Hendricks. “This type of camaraderie is hard to come by in most businesses.” The Great Heart team, from the vineyards to the winery and warehouse, all work as a collective and being 100% owners of the winery, they benefit directly from profits of Great Heart sales. The winery produces six wines, which are distributed in South Africa and in the UK, USA, Netherlands and Japan.

Champion of Swartland MCC

The Swartland is filled with passionate and creative types – those either born here or drawn to its beauty and possibility — and this is particularly apparent when it comes to winemaking. Enter Christa von La Chevallerie, who has been quietly crafting exceptional MCC wines for years in the Paardeberg and surrounding areas. With both the love and the palate for exceptional sparkling wine, Von La Chevallerie will be leading an interactive exploration of Swartland MCC wines at Solo Studios 2024 in Riebeek Kasteel, on Friday 09 and Saturday 10 August. A Swartland-born and bred girl, von La Chevallerie’s wine of choice has always been champagne. She studied winemaking at Germany’s prestigious Geisenheim University of Wine and Viticulture, and upon her return to South Africa, found her passion for old bush vines in Swartland. A hard worker and a bit of a renegade, she started her own independent wine venture as viticulturist, winemaker and creative director for Huis van Chevallerie in 2011 and became known for making exceptional MCC wines from Chenin Blanc and Pinotage, for her own brand and for private labels. Bullish on Swartland wines and full of engaging stories about her wine journey, Von la Chevallerie will present The Art of Perfection, a journey through the diverse world of Kaap Klassiek and Methode Ancestral sparkling wines from the Swartland. This interactive tasting will showcase different styles, providing a comparison between contemporary expressions and their matured counterparts.

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Visit on www.solostudios.co.za