"Stunning location and nice restaurant. Pity about the gallery; we asked for permission to take a picture on one of the art piece and the sales person, a woman in her 60s, berated us and heavily implied that we are going to steal the artist's work. A simple decline, a polite no will suffice, why the need to be so aggressive? We later found the artist's work online anyway but her attitude tainted it and left a bad taste with us."

Sasha Miller

"Dear Benguela Owner (as per response on my review).
Thank you for taking the time to respond to my review. Unfortunately I am not interested in signing up.
Your call centre contacted me to ask if I wanted to buy more of your wines (having previously bought wines in Gauteng). Firstly they phoned me and didn't know who I am and kept calling me Shaun?? Further comments and innuendos were made which was not appreciated.

Love the wines, heavenly!!!
Their call centres are unfortunately unprofessional and make promises to send you e-mails which they don't."

Stephen Schoeman-Meyer

"I wasted my money buying an ticket to attend what Benguela Cove called “Oktoberfest”. I would expect a manager or event coordinator working for a place like Benguela Cove to have at least experienced some kind of version of Oktoberfest. Hanging up a few banners and serviettes that say “Oktoberfest” does not make your event an “Oktoberfest”. Dressing employees in “German”-themed aprons does not make your event an “Oktoberfest”. This was a sad, pathetic and frankly embarrassing excuse for an “Oktoberfest” event. Benguela Cove surely deserves an award for hosting the worst “Oktoberfest” ever known to humankind.
On arrival, I wondered if I had got the location wrong. I live close by — surely there is not another Benguela Cove in the Overberg area? No banners, nothing outside the farm to show their widely advertised (and I quote) “…. Feast, Fun, Craft Beers, & Fine Wines” event. Even as I entered, there was still no sign outside or inside the building that anything like an “Oktoberfest” was happening. I walked through the building entrance (as per usual, this extremely luxurious wine farm does not have anyone meeting you at the door — you have to search for someone to help you), and only further inside did I finally see something resembling a banner saying “Oktoberfest”.
I then came across three women speaking to a man, overhearing him obnoxiously saying he “understood their disappointment and that is why he was offering them a bottle of bubbly” and that “the Oompah Band will resume during the rugby game’s half-time period”. By now, I had two clear indications that this event was not worth the ticket price. As my wise father said: “Why would I pay R250 just to enter a building?” And he was right.
A lady scanned my ticket barcode, gave me a wristband, and I walked in — only to find absolute boredom. Three long tables with a handful of people sitting inside… drinking, of all things, wine. At the front, a band set up — but, as mentioned, they were on break because the rugby was on.
I wandered outside: a few more tables, people watching the rugby on a semi-large screen, and a severe lack of vendors. There were five, let’s call them, stalls, three of which were Benguela Cove themselves. The other two, one a beer stall — they had a Lager and an IPA. I tasted both and purchased an IPA. The other a stall for cider. Those from Benguela Cove themselves were one selling general drinks and cooldrinks; another selling food — not bratwurst or warm pretzels, but chicken schnitzel with chips, flammkuchen, käsespätzle and two desserts. And the last was a grand counter for Benguela Cove wines.
The band came up at half-time, played — not German music — and then packed up. That was enough for me.
This was not an “Oktoberfest”. This was Benguela Cove luring people under the guise of a fun, German-themed day (supposed to last from noon to late night) just to sell their wines. I feel bad for the beer and cider stalls and hope they didn’t have to pay to be there, as I suspect they would have suffered a loss. I was truly shocked: shocked to hear that this was not the first time Benguela Cove had hosted an “Oktoberfest”; shocked at their lack of effort to make it anything like Oktoberfest; and shocked that they had the audacity to charge people an entry fee for such a pitiful excuse of an event.
I wondered why tickets were not available to purchase at the door. Now I know that no one would have wasted money after seeing what this event actually was.
@Benguela Cove — surely, if you are desperate enough to lure visitors to your wine farm with what is, quite frankly, advertising on the edge of deception, you could do better than this. Or perhaps you need a new manager or event coordinator. I could host a better “Oktoberfest” in my back garden. You wasted my money and petrol. And I was not the only one: people I know who attended also asked “What did we pay for?”
This was clearly just a way to sell wine — and surely the only “Oktoberfest” on this planet where more people drank wine than beer. Shame on you!"

moth catcher