Farm-style fine dining at Spier’s Eight

WORDS MalibongweTyilo

Driving into the Spier Wine Estate, a sense of serenity associated with escaping the city buzz washes over you. Three hundred hectares of farmland, incorporating beautiful gardens and a combination of old Cape Dutch and contemporary architecture, makes for a perfect micro-retreat, just a few minutes outside of Stellenbosch and only 45 minutes drive from the Cape Town city centre.

The farm’s restaurant, named ‘Eight’ as an “expression of balance, cycles, harmony, infinity and abundance”, retains a farm feel although it is clearly as well-equipped as some of the best city eateries. It features an open plan kitchen that gives diners a view of how their food is prepared. But that’s not all there is to keep you occupied while the food is being prepared.

There’s a cosy fireplace to keep you warm and the ceiling on the terrace, created by artist Heath Nash out of 10 000 individually crafted flowers made from recycled white plastic milk bottles and lit with low voltage LEDs, is a sight to behold. And of course there’s the world famous wine.

“At Eight, we want to create memorable dishes. They embody simplicity and honesty, using the freshest, best quality ingredients,” says new chef Charl Coetzee, talking about their ‘farm to table’ ethos. “This is farm style food, with an emphasis on natural flavours.”

The restaurant, which will be adding dinner hours on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays as from October, can safely make the claim to using only the “freshest, best quality ingredients” due to the farm’s commitment to biodynamic farming.

Championed by Spier’s Angus Mcintosh, farming according to biodynamic principles means the creation of a diversified, balanced farm ecosystem that generates health and fertility within the farm itself, instead of depending on chemicals. Everything Farmer Angus grows on the Spier farm is organic; the cows are all grass fed from the farm itself.

Here the animals roam freely, raised on pastures, without the use of antibiotics or hormones, playing their natural role in contributing to the fertility of the soil. The principles apply to the vegetables too, as their vitality is closely bound to the health of the soil.

This ethos translates into the restaurant’s menu, which will change once every two months depending on what is available from the vegetable garden. One of the menu’s ‘must try’ highlights is the Farmer Angus tasting plate: sweet bread, pâté en croûte, oxtail, roast beef, biltong, brisket, pickles, mustard and bread – all the meat from grass-fed cattle of course.

Considering that this is after all a wine farm, one naturally has an opportunity to pair dinner with some of the best wines Spier has to offer. This means you probably shouldn’t drive afterwards, in which case we recommend pairing your restaurant booking with an overnight booking at the Spier hotel. The motif of abundance continues through into the generous farm style rooms, with a toasty fireplace to round off a simply perfect evening.

Eight is open Tuesday to Sunday for brunch from 10:00 – 12:00, lunch from 12:00 – 15:00, and tea from 15:00 – 16:30. From October, Eight will be open for dinner on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. The restaurant is also available for private functions. Contact the reservations desk on 021 809 1100 to make an enquiry or booking.