random activities in the Cape Winelands

Here are some of the Cape Winelands activities that you can enjoy that aren't winery visits/wine tasting...

• Jonkershoek Nature Reserve
  We spent our first (almost) full day in South Africa here, as most wineries are closed on Sundays. It was good to get out in the fresh air and do some hiking, after our long plane trip and the stress of getting everything in order the day we arrived. This place is definitely worth a visit if you're ever in the region. Lots of gorgeous scenery here. We didn't see too many animals though, which is a shame. Do take the trail that goes to two different waterfalls. Very beautiful!




Oh, and we also saw this freaky VW Beetle-for-rent in the parking area hehe...




• Stellenbosch Village Museum
  The museum is made up of 4 different houses that reflect Stellenbosch life during various times in the past. You start at the oldest house which is from 1709 and end at a house from around the 1850s. It's interesting to see how housing standards changed over the times. Especially the “toilets” (chamber pots hah!) and the eventual development of the first showers. And among the things that didn't change – onions hanging up in the kitchen. They say it keeps the flies away...



• The Afrikaans Language Monument in Paarl
  It's hard to get an idea of the impressiveness of this monument without actually being there. When you go inside and play around a little, you get a freaky echo...



• Le Bonheur Crocodile Farm
  OK, it's one thing looking at all the crocodiles that are farmed there. It's another thing to get the chance to hold a baby crocodile. A little Schnappi, though its name was Charlie. Baby crocodiles are very cute, and soft to the touch, like really old, broken-into leather. Which is what the crocodiles are actually farmed for – leather. Though there are a bunch of crocodile tails that go towards food. They also had this nifty albino crocodile that they kept in a tank indoors, and a few crocodiles that had birth defects or whatnot that would make them unable to fend for themselves in the wild...

And some general information about the main cities in the Winelands:

• Franschhoek
  
• Paarl
  
• Stellenbosch
  

winery tours, part III

Here are some random wineries we visited while on the way to some place or other...

Haute Cabrière
We stopped here after our meal at La Petite Ferme. This Franchhoek winery is known for sparkling wines. We had a cellar tour as well as a tasting.

Their most interesting bubbly was a pink one – the Bella Rosa – which is a chardonnay with a hint of pinot noir. We bought a bottle and drank it when we were at our guest house in Cape Town...

From the bottle:

In vino veritas

Lurking in every glass
Of our Chardonnay Pinot Noir
Is Bacchus and reality
Mingling
Sun, soil, vine, man
In a delicious manner
To celebrate life
And our dreams.

- Achim von Arnim

Groot Constantia
We came here after a trip to Table Mountain; it was along the way to a restaurant where we were planning on having dinner. Tasting had already closed for the day when we got there, but there was a group there and the lady in charge let us in anyway, and we didn't have to pay anything for the tasting, even though we offered. That was really nice of her! So we got to taste a few red and dessert wines. And it's a good thing the lady let us taste, because we ended up buying a bottle of their wonderful cab sauv ;-)

Raka
We were on our way to Betty's Bay when we drove by Raka... and then turned around to check it out. We did so because we drank a Raka Shiraz a few days earlier (see tasting notes), loved it, and were therefore curious about what else they had. When we arrived, we entered the main building, and nobody was there. We thought this was kind of strange, as there were wine bottles and tasting glasses set up at a table. We called out “hello...” and nobody showed up. OK...fine. (And very strange that we could just walk into a place like that.) We turned and walked out. As we were leaving, we heard a voice call out to us and saw a woman run out of a house nearby. When we met, she mumbled something about how typical it was that the moment she went to the house to take care of some laundry, people would show up...

Anyway, we told her about the wine we had (biography shiraz), which was why we stopped at Raka at all. She immediately poured us the 2003 version of the wine... DANG! The 2004 was quite good, but this... this was great! We also got to try lots of other good stuff, including good stuff that she tapped from the tanks :-)

We didn't buy anything though... hmmf... next time ;-)

This woman, Elna, was very interesting. Although she had knowledge about wine, she wasn't much of a wine drinker. It was fun talking to her. We could have talked all night, had we not been on our way to Betty's Bay to see the penguins ;-)

winery tours, part II

27th of September, 2006. We used the Vinehopper to visit the following five wineries. It is a hop-on hop-off tour, as you see in the link, but as we were the only two on the tour that day, we didn't have to follow the schedule exactly. So in reality, we had our own private chauffeur. For the price of a hop-on hop-off minibus. That was very nice because we could visit the wineries at our own pace.

Vredenheim
They have a very nice rosé, and one of their reds was quite nice. They have a lovely garden, where you can have a picnic under a weird umbrella. Wouldn't you love to have a back yard like that? *sigh* :) They also have a mini game park on their grounds, with zebras, springbok, ostriches, etc.

Spier
We did 2 different kinds of tasting here. The first one was a wine and cheese tasting. And then a “regular” tasting of five wines, though not the same wines that were with the cheese.

The wine and cheese pairings were as follows:
1. Spier Classic Merlot 2004/5 with Fairview White Rock with Cranberries.
2. Spier Classic Shiraz 2004 with Dutch Old Master
3. Spier Discover Sweet 2005 with Cape Salut with a sultana and peppadew compote.

All the wines were given a :-)+ rating while all the cheeses got a :-D As I mentioned in another post, the cheeses here are so gooooooooooooooooood... And as you can see in the photo, even Mini Wolfgang was enjoying all the good wine and cheese action!

We were given a pamphlet about the wines and cheeses for the tasting; it has some information about how to match wine and cheese. I'll post that information somewhere, someday...


Spier is very “commercial” and “touristy,” but nonetheless an interesting place with excellent wines. Aside from the wines, you can do cool things like the Eagle Encounters (excellent for people like me who dig birds of prey)...

Or you could visit the Cheetah Outreach program, where you can pet a live cheetah!



Haskell (formerly Dombeya)
We tasted some wonderful white wines here and ended up buying a chardonnay. We also had lunch on the patio of their restaurant, overlooking some beautiful scenery, and enjoyed a bottle of their lovely shiraz 2003 (since we weren't allowed to try it during the tasting – big mistake on their side as this is a wine people would want to buy once they know what it tastes like) along with our very tasty lunch.

(btw - wine tasting notes and food review will be posted in the future.)

Bilton
This was the biggest pleasant surprise, as Bilton is a small winery and relatively unknown, especially when compared to places like Boschendal, Spier and Fairview. I'm glad they were on the tour; there's nothing wrong with the über-touristy wine estates per se, but it's also fun giving the new, not-so-established places a chance. I've already written a little bit about Bilton.

Kleine Zalze
By now, we were a bit tipsy, but we were able to acknowledge that this winery had some really nice white wines. The 2006 Sauvignon blanc was especially noteworthy. I've heard (after our return home of course! Hmmf!) that the restaurant here is quite amazing... maybe we'll try it next time we're in the area :-)

the South African wine industry - and winery tours, part I

The South African Wine Industry – Historical and General Information
The South African wine industry began in 1652 with the arrival of Jan van Riebeeck in the Cape region. His first wine was made in 1659.

The history of what has happened in between then and now is rather interesting. Lots of politics, and I'm not talking about Apartheid...

Currently, depending on what statistics you look at, the South African wine industry is the 6th or 7th largest in the world and growing. Producers are divided according to one of three different types - estate wineries, co-operatives, and independent cellars.

Wine regions include the Cape Winelands, which includes Stellenbosch, Paarl, Franschhoek and more. Contantia is the oldest, and there are lots of others outside of Cape Town, such as Swartland and Cape Point.

The Pinotage grape, a cross between Cinsault and Pinot Noir is exclusively South African, and the youngest grape variety in the world. However, Cabernet sauvignon dominates the red varieties, while Shiraz is becoming more and more popular. Chenin blanc is the most planted variety of all...

Winery tours – 26th of September
We went on the Easy Riders group wine tour that included the following four wineries:

Simonsig
The highlight of this trip was watching a bottle of sparkling wine be opened with a sword ;-) This was the only winery on this whole tour where we had a guide who presented information about wine production in general and where we got to see a cellar. The wines were OK - we didn't grade them very high. Most likely because we were stingy with the grading at the start...

Fairview
Yes, indeed. Goats do roam here! And they let us taste the good stuff, not just their cheapest stuff – at most wineries, they only have a certain set of “cheaper” wines they let the tourists taste. In order to taste the good stuff, you usually have to book a special appointment/tasting. Or pay extra, though it's difficult to get that in order if the place is busy. And not only did we taste lots of really good wine, we also got to taste some really tasty cheeses, produced from the goats' and cows' milk from the animals on the farm. Too bad it was impossible to take some of the cheese home with me :-/

Kudos to Enoch, who assisted us in the tastings and with buying a few bottles. He was brilliant!

Dieu Donné
They have a very nice sparkling (Methode Cap Classique/Maingard Brut) and a lovlier wooded chardonnay. Not too crazy about the the other wines though.

Boschendal
The wines we tasted were already set up for us when we arrived, i.e. poured in the tasted glasses, which I wasn't overly amused with. However, they have a white wine called Le Bouquet that was just amazing – everyone sitting at the tasting table with us liked the Le Bouquet. Which was interesting because the others we sat with had very different tastes in wine than our tastes... We ended up buying a bottle :-)