Breffni Gallery - Gifts & Wines, Art & Antiques
Colin & Teresa Pielow were restaurateurs for over 30 years, with restaurants in Wicklow, Cork, South Africa and Dublin. They have combined their passion for creativity to bring their own style to Breffni Gallery, creating a unique gift shop showcasing their passion for antiques, contemporary Irish made craft gifts, art and confectionary including their exclusive range of Pielow’s Wines and other wines from around the world. Pielow’s Wines
A boutique selection of South African wines under the Pielow’s Label. The award winning winemaker Dewaldt Heyns is creating our exclusive range of wines with our white wines comprising of Chenin Blanc and a blend of Sauvignon Blanc and Chenin Blanc and our famous Shiraz. Dewaldt is passionate about every aspect of the winemaking process, which is unique and labour intensive. Handpicking, intensive sorting of the berries, a gravity-fed fermentation cellar and focus on attention to detail are key to his phenomenal success as a winemaker. This consistent performance has led to Dewaldt being nominated and accepted as a member of the prestigious Cape Winemakers. History
Colin & Teresa Pielow Chef proprietors of four successful restaurants, three in Ireland and one in South Africa from 1991 to 2020 all of which gained widespread critical acclaim. Their passion for food and wine brought them to South Africa in 2005, where they settled in the beautiful Tulbagh valley in the Cape Winelands. They bought a traditional cape Dutch style house with 1.5 hectares, and planted a vineyard ultimately producing their own wine. They ran Pielow’s Restaurant in Tulbagh for 5 years while also exporting their own Pielow’s Shiraz to Ireland. They returned to Ireland in 2010 to open Pielow’s Restaurant in Cabinteely until 2020
Their vineyard in South Africa produced the Pielow’s Shiraz which was sold in the restaurant and accounted for over 50% of wine sales. When their house & vineyard was sold in 2018 their wine maker continued to make their Pielow’s Shiraz wine from local Shiraz grapes. They gained much knowledge and many contacts with South African wine makers as a result of their time spent in South Africa and their yearly visits. Backstory:
Early in 2005 we were in the process of selling our business in Cork, Ireland to return to Dublin. Before returning to set up another business in Dublin we had planned to buy a camper van and tour Europe for a few months. However all this changed when we decided to take a holiday in South Africa. We had intended in stay in Franschhoek or Stellenbosch when friends of ours offered us their holiday home in Tulbagh. We had never heard of Tulbagh before and we were truly amazed by the beauty of the Tulbagh valley and its charming historic town with a wealth of cape Dutch Architecture, majestic mountain ranges and exciting wine estates. Historical Church Street, home to 32 National Monuments, constitutes the largest concentration of National Monuments in one Street in South Africa. By the end of our week in Tulbagh in March 2005 we had signed a contract to buy Honeyoaks Cottage. One of the traditional cape Dutch houses on 1.5 hectares on Church Street, with a plan to plant a vineyard in the back garden. By October we moved with our two Labradors, and a forty foot container with the contents of our Restaurant from Ireland. We opened up our new Restaurant Pielow’s at the De Oude Herberg Guest House just across the road from Honeyoaks. We were featured in a documentary (The Great Escape) about relocation filmed by Coco Productions for RTE, Ireland’s national television network. The documentary was filmed over one year showing us setting up and running the Restaurant, cultivating our vineyard at Honeyoaks and producing our own wine with a local award winning winemaker, David Jordan from Manley’s Private Cellar. Keen to produce our own wine we bought 4 tons of Shiraz grapes from a local vineyard to make our first Pielow’s Shiraz. Now, thanks to The Great Escape, Tulbagh has now been put on the map for a (as a) new destination for Irish visitors to the Cape. Because of the great response from the programme and a huge increase in Irish visitors we would now like to help you plan your Great Escape to the Cape. Tulbagh is very centrally located just under 1½ hours from Cape Town, the East Coast, West Coast and the Winelands and is easily accessible on safe and scenic routes. We would like to share some of our favourites of the Cape and some alternative destinations that we have discovered beyond the usual tourist routes.
