in vino veritas...

It's the truth. South African wine is fantastic! :-D

29/09-2007
This was a happy day for everyone, especially Mini Wolfgang! It was the big wine tasting day! Woohoo!

But first, we had some morning drama. We were eating breakfast and boyfriend of feitpingvin heard a strange sound in the Moroccan room. He took a quick look and came back to the breakfast table, saying that a dove had managed to get into the room and was trying to fly out through the window, and that the dogs were rather curious. We grabbed our cameras as this was a potential charming photo op, and you could hear that something going on. But then suddenly... silence. We went to have a look, and the only thing you could see was Floyd with his nose buried in the sofa, with feathers flying everywhere; you could hear a muffled growl and chewing. Ugh...

Floyd had managed to capture the dove, and it looked like he was eating it. Who can blame him though... the doves like to get at his and Roxy's food dishes (placed outside). He was chomping and growling and shaking his head, releasing feathers... the cover on the sofa was stained with blood and bird crap, and after moving the sofa, we found the poor dove on the floor, badly injured... poor ting had to be put down, it was best that way...

We never expected that we would see this kind of a kill. Lions killing buffalo, sure, if we were lucky. But a dog killing a dove? Very freaky. It was kind of grotesque, but at the same time, overwhelmingly funny...

Darn, I could use some wine now ;-)

Robertson is the second largest wine producing region in South Africa, and is part of the Route 62 wine route, the longest in the world (and one of the most underrated activities in South Africa).

Our host at Robertson Backpackers was also our driver/wine guide. I'll just use his first initial (K.) as I'd like to avoid using people's names on blogs, even though his name is on his webpage. Anyway, considering it was Saturday and most places closed early, we managed to hit an impressive 6 wineries. Now keep in mind that I swallowed most of what I tasted, and what I ended up writing in my little notebook (if anything at all in the end) reflects this ;-)

Rusticus
It was kind of dangerous going to this place first, as it seemed to “ruin” us for everything else ;-)

Rusticus produces their wines the “old fashioned way” - quite literally. The owners (the Busch family) use restored antique wine-making equipment and machinery, with minimal use of modern technology. I don't know to what extent making wine this way makes the difference, but the wines here are beyond fantastic...



(more cool photos of Rusticus on my flickr site)

Arabella
This wasn't in the original plan, but K. hadn't visited the place before and it was along the way to the next stop, so why not?

The Robertson area is known for more than just wine. Among the other things Robertson is famous for – thoroughbred horses. Part of the Arabella estate is a stud farm. The horses we saw there were beautiful.



Viljoensdrift
They're set right by the Breede River; it was very beautiful there. It's a popular picnic spot...



De Wetshof Estate
We tasted the best dessert wine ever – the Edeloes 2001. Too bad they didn't sell it, though they did let us take the bottle with the remaining contents – that was cool :-)

We did buy a bottle of a 2005 vintage to store though; can't wait to drink it :-) It was almost a disaster. The bottle we bought turned out to be defective, and it took several phone calls and several De Wetshof representatives trying to figure out where we were (we had been travelling here and there). But eventually, they caught up to us when we were in Johannesburg. We exchanged the bad bottle for a good one; everyone was happy :-)

Oh, we also bought a bottle of their lovely rosé wine...



Bon Courage
We were served a very lovely sparkling wine (cap classique), something we would have loved to take home with us had it been possible. Stupid, selfish fucks who keep the liquids ban going :-(

We had a very tasty lunch here – salad with smoked chicken and avocado, oranges, pineapple, nuts, and feta. This was washed down with sparkling red grape juice...

Springfield
This was our last stop. They had a very lovely “Life from Stone” Sauvignon blanc.



We relaxed in the back yard when we were done with the wine tour, and Floyd (the proud hunter) and Roxy got their obligatory belly rubs. After drinking a small can of Lesothan beer (geez, more to drink? ;), I wanted to go for a walk. Boyfriend of feitpingvin didn't want to come along, so I explored the area on my own... no problems whatsoever. In fact, I noticed that there were very few people who had the typical high fences and/or walls and barbed wire. Everything was open, and you had the feeling of safety and tranquility. It was such a nice feeling...

And the area is sooo beautiful! Mountains, valleys, new flowers to let the world that spring had arrived... lots of birds... good stuff!

When I got back from my walk, I played with the dogs some more, and then we had a delicious red chicken curry for dinner (home cooked by our hostess), along with some of the wine we bought on one of the visits (don't remember what we had, and we didn't take notes). We also shared the remaining dessert wine. Darn, that was good stuff!

getting to our routes - from the Garden Route to Route 62

26/09-2007
Ya wanna know what? There's nothing better than waking up with your eye glued shut with yellow, crusty pus. Let me tell ya... and once you chisel that layer of pus away, out oozes more yellow, gooey pus. Isn't that just peachy?

Dammit, where did this eye infection come from? All the sand from yesterday? Dodgy pillowcases? Hmm... this is not good...

The Jeffreys Bay Backpackers didn't serve breakfast so we had to go and find a café to get something. I was feeling rather miserable, so I didn't even write down the name of the place where we had breakfast. The meal was called "Biker's Breakfast" though (maybe someone will recognize the place based on the name?) – eggs and bacon and toast and probably other things I don't remember because I was too out of it and didn't write it down. I'm also a bit peeved that I didn't write much down, as the owner or manager (I think) of the place told me where I could go to deal with the eye. I was whining about it, and he was really nice and all like “oh, go to this pharmacy, it's just around the corner, ask for S., he'll take care of you!” So we went to that pharmacy, found S., and he gave (well, sold (for 20 Rand)) me a little tube of ointment and everything was hunky dory. Wheee! I had to use it three times a day for the next few days, but once I started using it, everything got so much better!

We were now on our way to Oudtshoorn (a main stop along Route 62). This was an action-packed journey. Some of the highlights along the way (along the Garden Route):

Stormsrivier/Storms River. It's easy to see why this place is one of the most highly recommended stops along the Garden Route. We had a walk over the bridge, and took pictures of the breathtaking scenery.

We also had lunch at Rafter's Restaurant – ostrich bobotie, washed down with mango juice. It was delicious! Bobotie rules! Everyone should eat bobotie – for breakfast, lunch, and dinner! We also got to see part of the village, with it's funky colorful buildings...


Bloukrans Bridge. This bridge offers the world's highest commercially operated bungee jump. No, I didn't jump ;-) I would have considered it had it not been for the darn eye...

Birds of Eden. Birds of Eden is the largest free-flight bird aviary in the world. It is full of plants and trees and lots of other good places for the birds to hide. You know they're there, even though you don't see them. You can feel their little beady eyes piercing right through you. Good stuff... :-)

I kind of feel bad about making boyfriend of feitpingvin come here, as our visit here gave us too little time to go to the elephant park next door (if we were to make it to The Heads). I had seen lots of birds already and we visited a bird park last year... and he has never interacted with elephants. Next time I guess... :-/

The Heads at Knysna. The views are breathtaking! They even have a webcam

..........

We arrived at Backpacker's Paradise in Oudtshoorn early evening. It's quite a big place – the common room and dining area are huge, and it looks like there are a lot of rooms in general. Our en-suite room was big and cosy-looking. It's supposedly one of the best backpackers' in all of South Africa. I must say that I agree with this!

We ate dinner at Jemima's Restaurant; this place was recommended by a trusted someone on the Lonely Planet message boards (hey, thanks!). We didn't order a starter, but we were given a starter/amuse bouche anyway – spinach, mushrooms, and feta in phyllo pastry along with sourdough bread and a sun-dried tomato pesto. This was delicious!



My main course was the “tandem” - a steak duo. My duo was of ostrich and springbok, prepared medium rare. This was served with an amazing port- and cranberry sauce. And “parmesan potatoes.”



Boyfriend of feitpingvin ordered grilled Karoo lamb. This was served with a puff pastry “pot” (with a lid and everything) filled with leg of lamb. He also got a portion of “parmesan potatoes.”



Our meals were simple, but very delicious. It was just what we wanted. The meat melted in our mouths...mmmm. South African meat, especially the game, is just wonderful.

The wine we chose to quaff with our meal was out of this world:

Kango Winery Cabernet sauvignon/Merlot/Shiraz 2006. Local wine!
color: it was too dark to see
nose: prunes, raisins, alcohol
palate: anise, cloves, cranberries, apricot and raspberry finish. It's very “different” and difficult to characterize. It's a great all-around wine for pairing with food (especially red meat) as well as drinking on its own.
grade: :-D

I managed to stir some interest, as I was feverishly writing notes at the table and taking photos of the food. First, there was a Danish woman who asked (in Danish; boyfriend of feitpingvin had asked her earlier, in Norwegian, if she was Danish) if I was a food journalist. And then the couple who were at the table next to us asked the same thing. I just told them I was a silly amateur who likes to write silly things and post silly photos in her travel blog... ;-)

Getting paid to travel around South Africa and the rest of the world to write about food and wine would be a really cool job though! :-D

We chatted with the couple for a little while; they were on their honeymoon. She is a wine buyer/sommelier in Scotland. She said that she loved South African wines and that there were so many fantastic wines available. The problem was that they were inexpensive. Too inexpensive. Such that even with the markup in say, a restaurant, people always associated low price with bad quality wine. This shows that many people who go and buy wine don't know shit about what they're buying and drinking, but what can one really do to resolve this problem?