Kingsbury Cottage Contact Details			Contact :	Franci Roos
INT Fax :	+27-23-3551733		Local Fax :	023-3551733
Cell (1) :	083-6291710		Cell (2) :	083-6291735

The approach road to the Kingsbury Cottage comes up along the side of the Petit Verdot vines and dies into what will be a paved parking area for about 20 vehicles. To access the Kingsbury Cottage one continues up the same road and then climbs upward to the brick parking area in the foreground above. The Guest Cottage we have constructed is at the top of the current driveway, with a commanding view.

Appointments/Meals/Reservations/Rates/Contact Information

As the many photos that follow will show, the overall feel and appointments of the cottage are viewed as First Class. To start, there are two bedrooms with King-sized beds, separated by the two bathrooms, all with new linens. We normally would expect that occupancy would not exceed four people. The kitchen is fully equipped, but if you do intend to have meals in, please plan your food carefully as Worcester grocery stores are at least 35 minutes distant, way too far to run for a quart of milk. (We also highly recommend for at least one dinner an exceptional country restaurant, the Mill and Oaks, about 20 minutes drive in the Ceres direction, and Opstal Estate, about 30 minutes away on Wine Route 1, in the Slanghoek direction. Closer, about 10 minutes away, is a family bush pub, the legendary Calabash, that serves simple meals and is a wonderful throwback to earlier days. Still closer is Bergsig Estate, which serves a lovely breakfast and luncheons in a very tastefully appointed dining room. You will be treated well wherever you go in this valley for a meal or camaraderie.)

Returning to the air-conditioned cottage, we have a cast iron stove in the living room, heated slate floors, an outside braai, firewood, and outside chairs and table, as well as an ironwood dining room table. In short, we believe anyone enjoying a stay with us will feel like they own SILKBUSH Mountain Vineyard, even if it is only for a few days. Most days, the sunrises are spectacular, the birds are your alarm clocks, and the sunsets take your breath away.

As you might expect, our onsite partners/managers, Anton and Franci Roos, book all requests for reservations. As of May 2008, we are just establishing our policies as we also attend to small details as the Kingsbury Cottage was completed early this year. We are all very proud of the new home and want to offer it only to those who wish the opportunity to be on an operating vineyard in the Breedekloof district and who will take exceptional care of the property. The daily rate, which may be varied by season and holidays, has been initially set at R1 200/night (about US$160/night) with a two night minimum. This is definitely a NON SMOKING property, and violations of this policy will not be accepted. The Kingsbury is an upscale home, and we expect everyone to treat it at least as well as their own.

In general, the Roos will accept reservations starting 60 days prior to the first night of occupancy. (Our off shore partners are required to make any advance reservations prior to such cutoff time and generally will do so in conjunction with the need to make longer term travel plans.) Reservations will normally be made by accepted bank transfer or debit charge for the first night’s lodging. More detailed matters will be handled on a case by case basis by the Roos, who speak both Afrikaans and English.

Franci Roos
PO Box 91, Breerivier 6858
South Africa                                   [27] 23-355-1636        home
roos@breede.co.za                       [27] 083-629-1710      cell/sel

Anton Roos
anton@silkbush.net                       [27] 083-629-1735      cell/sel

In general, the Roos ask that initial contact be made via the Internet (email) and they will promptly respond; they check their emails every day they are on the farm. Phone contact is more for refinements once a firm reservation is desired, and the dates desired are available, for checking in at the vineyard office upon arrival, or for emergencies. As the Roos have three young sons, please be respectful of normal family hours in making contact. (Early and late calls will normally go onto an answering machine.)

The cottage is normally locked and has a hard-wired security system. In the cottage office, there is high speed Internet service (bring your laptop), a printer, and satellite TV service. Cellular phone service is very good in this region, and guests are expected to bring their own cell phones. (The manager’s home is about a mile below the cottage, so one cannot dash across the yard to ask a question.)

Inside the Kingsbury Cottage

The Kingsbury guest cottage was designed and construction administered by Karel Englebrecht who resides in the nearby city of Worcester. Karel owns/manages the firm of KE Ontwerp, and may be reached at keontwerp@mweb.co.za or by cell phone at: 082-787-9558

Driving instructions, maps, and the Last Kilometer

Appearing elsewhere on this website are a series of maps that will allow almost any guest to navigate easily from Cape Town International Airport (for example) to the Manager’s house. (Please print out the maps in color as they are then easier to read and understand.) Franci or Anton will then escort guests to the cottage for an initial briefing and provide them keys for their stay. The public roads leading to SILKBUSH are all in very good condition, and are hard surfaced until the last 2.2 kilometer to the vineyard which is a level gravel surface. All roads on the vineyard are gravel and are in acceptable condition.

That said, the last kilometer on the River Road is uphill and requires a higher crown to divert winter rain water runoff. One must slow down or hit a bump or two, especially if the vehicle has very low clearance. Vehicles with good road clearance, such as bakkies (pickups) and 4 wheel drive vehicles, will never have problems; sports cars are quite questionable here.

Outside the Kingsbury Cottage

While we have had our plans completed for a large Manor House for several years and a generous building site and approach road graded, we had held off construction of residences until the vineyard plantings were essentially complete, vine maturity near, and sufficient capital available. Be that the plan, we decided we also would need a comfortable guest cottage available sooner than later. We had an ideal location, roughly 150 meters northeast of the (proposed) Manor House parking area and a two bedroom/two bath/office home was designed in 2006. Construction started in early 2007 and was completed in January 2008. Extensive landscaping of the cottage grounds has been completed but "grow in" will continue for some time.

Just after the cottage's construction commenced, one of our partners, Tom Kingsbury, a youthful 64, was diagnosed with inoperable pancreatic cancer; we lost Tom on August 30th, 2007. Tom was a Director and Advisory Committee for SILKBUSH for years, had visited the vineyard early in its development, fallen in love with the property and was very excited about its future. (Since he had just retired, Tom had playfully volunteered to come down at harvest time and drive the grape delivery truck to any winery; Anton had considered taking him up on the offer as our harvests become quite large!) In memory of a remarkable, very kind man, a loving father of two adult daughters, and a life long friend of many, we have named this guest house the Kingsbury Cottage.