Tiz The Season

Jackie Cameron receives the award for South Africa's Top Wine List in the Relaxed Dining category on behalf of Hartford House
(Photo : Top 100 SA Wines)

Hartford's Wine List came out Number One,
the only one marked 'Inspirational'

If you've been listening to East Coast Radio in the past couple of days, you'll have heard the name Hartford House many times for its distinction as the only KZN-based restaurant among Eat Out's national Top Ten. A few weeks before, chef Jackie Cameron's team were among the chosen few at the American Express Fine Dining Awards for the 7^th consecutive year, and within a blink of time, they earned themselves another Diners Club Diamond Award for one of the country's best wine lists.

We know they've been making headlines for a couple of years now, but the Hartford team takes nothing for granted, and the same goes for "big brother," Summerhill Stud. It seems that team has been on the podium for months too, with an eighth consecutive National Breeder's Championship, another statuette at the Highveld Racing Awards, and a string of distinctions at both the KZN Breeders and the KZN Racing "Nights of the Stars". That's an awful lot of dinners, if you happen to have a foot in both camps!

The latest one is as significant as any of them, and came our way last Sunday evening when the "Cameron Girl" winged her way once again to the Mother City to represent us at the Top 100 Wine List Challenge for 2013. Remarkably (or perhaps not so remarkably for those of us who know how much work went into it,) in the Relaxed Dining category, Hartford's wine list came out Number One, the only one marked "Inspirational". Selecting wines may sound appealing to those of us who make the odd visit to a cellar on a Saturday morning for a bit of a "jolly", but this team puts in hours of labour, interviewing wine-makers, tasting and pairing, and in the end establishing a criteria that knows no exceptions. Good food, good wine and good company are the irredeemable passports to a memorable meal, but you'll never know what we mean until you've "done" us yourself. Yes, Hartford is all of these things, but it also represents the only venue of its kind in the nation. Visit www.hartford.co.za, and see what we mean.

Hot Air Ballooning in the KZN Midlands

Click above to view photos of the Summerhill and Hartford Estates from the air...
(Photos : Leigh Willson)

"Suddenly the wind ceased.
The air seemed motionless around us. We were off."

Views of the Summerhill and Hartford Estates whilst Hot Air Ballooning above the
KwaZulu-Natal Midlands! This is just one of the many unique experiences Hartford can arrange
while you are staying with us.

"Suddenly the wind ceased. The air seemed motionless around us.
We were off, going at the speed of the air-current in which we now lived and moved.
Indeed, for us there was no more wind; and this is the first great fact of spherical ballooning.
Infinitely gentle is this unfelt motion forward and upward.
The illusion is complete: it seems not to be the balloon that moves,
but the earth that sinks down and away..."

- Alberto Santos-Dumont, My Air-Ships, 1904.

For further queries, contact Emma on 033 263 2713 or reception@hartford.co.za

www.hartford.co.za

Heliotrope Suite 10 at Hartford House

Hartford House Heliotrope Suite 10
(Photos : Hartford House)

Heliotrope Suite 10

Originally known as the Garden suite, Heliotrope and its neighbour were the first attempt by our previously unskilled Zulus at building with bricks and mortar. A fine effort, we're sure you'll concede.

Appropriately, the suite takes its name from the Heliotrope flower, and a parallel connection with the first racehorse owned by Mick Goss and his family.

Originally selected by Mick's late father, Bryan, shortly before his premature death in 1977, a one third share in the R900 purchase Heliotrope was the sum of Mick's inheritance, though he did get the racing "disease" from his Dad and grandfather, Pat snr. Yet it was this modest horse that ignited the fire which burns so brightly in the subsequent history of Summerhill Stud, the multiple champion racehorse breeding establishment on the continent, and of course, in the distinguished story of Hartford, which was the subject of an exchange for the Goss family property in Hillcrest, just outside Durban, in 1990.

A humble but game little racehorse, Heliotrope provided Mick and Cheryl with one of their most thrilling moments when he became a winner on only his second racecourse start, and this early success led to the Gosses acquiring their first race filly, Pagoda, the foundation mare in the Summerhill story.

The furnishings in these suites are drawn from such diverse places as India and Morocco, while the teak flooring was part of the original dining room in the fabled Edward Hotel on Durban's Golden Mile.

For more information please visit :
www.hartford.co.za

A PRIVATE RACE MEETING - WHAT A CELEBRATION!

Private Race Meeting at Hartford
(Photos : Leigh Willson)

"PLATINUM CLASS"

Hartford did what no other hotel in the world can do on the weekend. It celebrated a personal milestone by staging a private race meeting with trainers, jockeys, bookmakers, a commentator, and proper racehorses on Summerhill's private racecourse, which in the Ellis era, sent forth the winners of every major race on the South Africa racing calendar. That we can do it, lends credence to our claim as "the only world class hotel on a world class stud farm in the world!"

Among the attendees were several of South Africa's leading business, financial and political figures, and the racehorses included two multi-millionaires, the country's winningmost racehorse of all time, a Group-placed colt and Stakes-winning filly, all of which have retired to our paddocks, and for one reason or another are no longer active as racehorses or at stud.

While we've staged these events for some of the big names in the corporate world in the past, this was a "first" for a private party, and you should've been here in the past couple of weeks to witness the frenetic activity that went into "prepping" the horses for their big day. You'd have sworn it was the Durban July, and when the volume went up as the horses entered the last furlong, you'd be forgiven for thinking you were attending the Melbourne Cup!

ELLIS SUITE 4 AT HARTFORD HOUSE

Hartford House Ellis Suite 4
(Photos : Sally Chance)

Ellis Suite 4

This suite is named for the Ellis family, who occupied the Hartford property from 1939 to 1990, when they exchanged the property with the Goss family for their home in Hillcrest near Durban. Raymond Ellis snr. was a property developer in Durban, and owned much of what is now known as Durban North. He was also a prominent hotelier, remembered for his proprietorship of the Fairhaven and Rydal Mount Hotels on Durban's Golden Mile, as well as being the founder of what is today South Africa's biggest brick-making business, Corobrick. Hartford was the Ellis country retreat, and they started breeding racehorses here in 1941.

The racing achievements of the Ellises, who proceeded to develop one of the greatest racehorse-breeding dynasties in history, were described by the famous author Sir Mordaunt Milner as ranking alongside those of Lord Derby, the Aga Khan, Coolmore and the Sheikhs Maktoum in the United Kingdom, Marcel Boussac in France, Senor Tesio in Italy, the Hancocks and the Phippses in the United States, and the Inghams in Australia.

From these historic pastures, they bred, raised and trained the winners of every major race on the South African racing calendar, and in their era, they were indomitable.

Once the sleeping quarters of Mick and Cheryl Goss' daughter Bronwyn, in more recent times, Ellis has accommodated His Majesty King Letsie III of Lesotho, ruling monarch of the Mountain Kingdom, during his visits to Summerhill Stud, where he keeps several horses which feed his and his nation’s passion for the equine species.

Its artworks include an example by one of the greatest of South African artists, the late Errol Boyley, who is remembered here by the painting of a horse and his groom after a thunderstorm at Summerhill Stud (the main farm). Errol, who was a great friend of Summerhill and Hartford, has several other major works adorning the walls of the manor house.

This suite is often reserved by travellers who knew Hartford while it was still a private home, and its popularity has survived the subtle but extensive developmental changes to the other accommodation which have taken place at Hartford in the past decade, aimed at the increasing comfort of our treasured guests.

For more information please visit :
www.hartford.co.za