The sweet taste of harvest season
From the vineyards of Franschhoek to the bakery table
There’s just something magical about harvest season in the Cape Winelands. It’s a time of early mornings, buzzing vineyards and the promise of something special in the making. In the midst of all this bustle lies a proud culinary tradition celebrating the link between vine and oven.
WHAT IS A MOSBOLLETJIE, AND WHAT DOES IT HAVE TO DO WITH HARVEST SEASON?
Mosbolletjies are sweet, yeasted buns traditionally leavened with grape must, which is the partially fermented juice left over from winemaking. They’re flavoured with anise or caraway and then baked closely together in a tray so that each roll pulls apart with a soft, pillowy tear. The original recipe first arrived in the Cape Winelands with the French Huguenots who settled in Franschhoek and established viticulture in the region; and it became a way to use the abundant seasonal must for something delicious.
Because mosbolletjies were traditionally made when grape must was available, they are naturally tied to harvest rhythms, meaning a wine farm’s bakery calendar rises and falls alongside pruning shears and picking trays. Today most bakers use yeast and grape juice instead of fresh must, but the treat remains a harvest season symbol in the Winelands.
LA MOTTE’S TAKE: TRADITION, CRAFT AND A GARDEN CAFÉ EXPERIENCE
La Motte’s Artisanal Bakery & Garden Café is a bridge between its long viticultural history and love of traditional slow baking. The estate’s bakery honours time-old methods with millstones, slow fermentation and bread-baking techniques inspired by 19th-century farm bakeries, pairing those methods with modern food science and design. The result is loaves and pastries that taste rooted in place: grain-forward, gently spiced and made to be eaten with wine, honey, jam and a smear of butter.
During harvest season the bakery’s role feels especially important. Ovens run longer; bakers and cellar workers cross paths; a musky grape-sweetness lingers in the air. La Motte’s bakery menu even nods to the region’s grape traditions (you’ll find items that celebrate “moskonfyt” and harvest flavours), and the Garden Café invites you to sit under trees and taste these pairings alongside the estate’s other produce.
A TRADITION STILL RISING
Mosbolletjies are more than just a regional sweet treat: they’re a living link between the land, the people who plant and pick the grapes and the kitchens that transform harvest produce into shared moments around a table. At La Motte, that connection is deliberately cultivated, from the estate’s French Huguenot roots to the bakery’s decision to revive slow, farm-style baking.
If you’re celebrating the harvest this season, whether by visiting the vineyards or baking at home, pause for a mosbolletjie and enjoy the sweetness of the Winelands.