The Winelands

We wanted to go on a wine tour and taste some South African wines, but where to start?  The Cape  has over 650 wineries within its borders.  This was too much for me to contemplate and so I did what I am famous for, delegate to someone with more knowledge.  I had done some research and decided we wanted to visit Stellenbosch, founded in 1679 by Governor Simon van der Stel (who named it after himself) and Franschoek (translates to French Corner), founded in 1688 by French Huguenots.  Both were doable as a day tour from where we were staying.  Our very informative Frommer's travel book on South Africa had suggested the best way of exploring the wine region was to book a wine tour with an expert who could tailor a tour to suit our needs.  There first choice was a gentleman by the name of Stephen Flesch,  We contacted him with the two towns we wanted to focus on, the types of wine we were interested in tasting, a restaurant we wanted have lunch at that was recommended to Rita by Wendi, a South African friend of her friend Grainne and the days we would be available.  He came back with a confirmed date and a full day itinerary of seven wineries that would start with a 09:00 pick-up at our place.  It was an amazing day as we explored some of the oldest, newest, smallest and grandest of the wineries in the two wine towns.  And Stephen is definitely a wine expert as he was the former Chairman of the Wine Tasters Guild of South Africa and he knew all the people at the wineries, which certainly helped with the wonderful service we received when we followed him through the door.  Of course, we found lot's of lovely wines that we wanted to take home with us.  30 bottles to be exact.  Six to drink while we are still here and 2 cases that we want to take back to Canada.  Unfortunately, Canada is one of the few countries in the world that will not allow its citizens to ship wine back home.  So, we have shipped one case of wine to Germany and will bring some back every time we visit Rita's parents and the other case we are bringing back as luggage.  It was a great day out and one of the best investments we made in having such an expert guide take us around and also allowed us to not worry about drinking and driving.

 One of many lovely Victorian buildings in Stellenbosch

 Stellenbosch street kids making music with plastic bottles and bongo drum and dancing for coins

  Meerlust Estate Homestead.  The winery was established in 1756 and is still owned by the original family.  Both its 2010 Chardonnay and 2008 Rubicon (red blend) scored 92 points in the Wine Spectator magazine

 

Stunning view of the mountains, vineyards and pond from the Stark-Conde winery tasting room. This was our favorite winery and we ordered 16 bottles of their wine!!!!

Breathtaking view from the deck of Delaire Graff winery where we had an outstanding lunch.  Thank you for the recommendation Wendi.   Laurence Graff, Chairman of Graff Diamonds purchased Delaire Winery in 2003 and spent millions turning in creating a "Wine Resort".  With an award winning winery, two restaurants, exclusive lodges, spa, art boutique and retail diamond store he has succeeded magnificently

 

 In the temperature controlled cellars at La Motte winery surrounded by their French oak wine barrels.  We really enjoyed their Sauvignon Blanc

1847 Dutch Reform Church in downtown Franschoek

After driving and wine tasting all day we decided to take a leisurely stroll before dinner.  Here Rita is walking along the Camps Bay promenade with shops and Table Mountain in the background