Springfield Estate — Attraction in Langeberg Local Municipality

Springfield has some great wines which is why I’ve been wanting to go there for years, but sadly, this was a complete anticlimax and ended up being one of the worst tasting experiences of my life. They are severely understaffed and the two people running the show have absolutely no clue what they are doing.

We arrived and as there was no one to welcome us we chose a table and sat down. After 10 minutes we realised no one was going to serve us, so we went inside and saw 2 people behind the counter and other staff (I’m assuming they were runners) standing on the side doing nothing, while there were a bunch of people waiting to be helped. When I reached the front I wasn’t greeted or acknowledged, only after a few minutes did a lady who wasn’t friendly at all, ask me what she can assist with. I asked her how the wine tasting worked and she said we pick our wines from a list, then we have to come fetch our wines ourselves, in other words, we won’t get served at our tables. Yet, we saw a couple of other tables being served which we didn’t understand.

Both ladies seemed frantic and twice we saw the one pouring the wrong wine in the glasses and then discarding it in the sink. She also asked us to pay before we had our wine tasting which was absurd. I told her I’ll pay afterwards because I might want to order wine and don’t want to make two payments, then she seemed irritated and gave me a slip and said I can pay later with any wines that I want to order.

When we went to pay, she was behind the counter but completely ignored me while she was filling more glasses and one of the runners also just stood there and ignored me while I waited. Not even a, ‘sorry sir, I’ll be with you in a minute’. I stood there for probably 10 minutes with no one even acknowledging me and the line behind me grew. New customers arrived and they were also ignored, they seemed confused about why no one was greeting them or helping them. Finally the other lady arrived after serving a table and assisted me with the payment. It was just total chaos and they didn’t seem to know what they were doing.

The wines and the scenery is great, but the service leaves much to be desired. I really hope they can fix what is a total mess in my view as this is such a bad advert for these...

While we were in Robertson, we went to visit the ever so popular Springfield Wine Estate. Everyone raves about this estate and we felt almost obliged to pay them a visit. Unfortunately, the drive down the beautiful driveway, on the way out, was the only memorable thing from this estate.

As we walked into the estate, we were not greeted by a single wait staff or member of the establishment. We stood around in the tasting room and still no one came to assist us. We ended up stopping a lady walking out with a tray of glasses to a table to assist us with the process. Firstly, I personally did not enjoy the process of collecting your own tastings. Secondly, not a single wait staff asked how our tasting was or if we needed any further explanation of the farm or the wine we were tasting. To rub more salt in the wound, their wine was not life changing at all. It left a very chemical-like taste in the mouth - a consequence of over pressing wine to get more juice from a harvest.

Disappointingly, we left after our tasting was done, and again not a single wait staff or representative of the farm saw us off or even said thank you that we came out to visit their farm.

Understaffed and over rated wine; such a pity.

The olives were amazing! I would suggest expanding your offering to...

Not to long ago, wine tasting in this valley was free. It changed and I understand this. I have been to Springfield several times in the past and I have never been disappointed. I will always recommend them as a great option. Until today. I state again, I don’t mind paying for a wine tasting but today: the wines were served, glasses plonked before us. Not a single word about the wine was said, no introduction to the farm or anything! After we have tasted the 5 wines and were almost leaving, a lady doing the tastings come to our table and asked how far we were with our tasting. Since we were done, she did not say anything . No apology for not showing up, she did not even try to make up by telling us about the farm… no effort. Although I have been there before, for 4 of our party, it were their first time visit and they will surely not bring their friends here. On a Saturday in summer, surely you need more than one person to do the tastings ?

It’s a pity. Such a beautiful place and great wines. But I doubt that I will be back for a visit. Rather order online and visit some of the other farms where we had lovely tastings, like Rietvallei...