The place I have been most looking forward to returning to on this trip was Stellenbosch; one of the most picture postcard perfect towns I have ever been to. Its shady streets lined with elegant white washed Cape Dutch houses, pavement cafes filled with students and tourists, beautiful setting at the foot of jagged mountain ranges and lovely weather all help to make it the perfect place to indulge in a few (or many!) glasses of its most famous export – wine.
We spent 3 days in the Stellenbosch area and visited 12 wineries so I thought I’d note down some of our favourites (and the ones we didn’t think much of) for those that are interested.
Bergkelder – the first we visited and I’m so glad we did. Not only did we get a great history lesson in how the South African wine industry started and developed, we had a fantastic tour from a man whose grandfather was credited with reviving the wine industry after apartheid. He was so excited about the wine that our tour took half an hour longer than it should have done! The Fleur de Cap wine that we tasted was pretty good too.
Brampton – this was not a vineyard but a funky wine studio right in the heart of town. We actually had a couple of glasses here on arrival in Stellenbosch before realising that the manager was the brother of a friend and so returned to do a proper tasting. The tasting was excellent (and included cheese and chocolate!) and we ended up buying a box of what is very drinkable and affordable wine.
Stark Conde – this was the most beautiful location for drinking wine. Set in a valley surrounded by wooded mountains on an island in the middle of a lake it could not have been a more perfect place to while away an hour. They also did a couple of Pinot Noirs which were very tasty and inevitably led to the credit card coming out.
Those that we didn’t like so much were Beyerskloof and Knorhoek. The first was a very impersonal tasting experience and the wines were not at all memorable. The second, although it had a lovely setting in flowery meadows, had the most unenthusiastic girl in charge any of us had ever met – we had to prompt her each time to tell us anything about the wine and I don’t think she smiled once while we were there. We couldn’t wait to get out of there!
Great South African wine does not only come from Stellenbosch. Our favourite wine that we came across by chance whilst eating ostrich in Oudtshoorn was a Syrah from a small producer called Joubert-Tradauw.
Naturally, we tasted many more than this but these were the stand out ones and we thought we’d let you know about them just in case on day you are browsing the shelves of Majestic and you come across any of the above.
Currently sitting on our balcony overlooking the surf at J-Bay having spent the day watching both humans and dolphins surf the incredible Supertubes break… and spending too much money at the numerous surf outlet stores. We will endeavour to update you all on Cape Town and beyond when we can pry ourselves away from living the dream!
Click here to see some civilised photos of the wine tours
Overland to Cape Town 