As you’ve probably guessed by the title, I spent today wine tasting around the cape.
I’ve gone on some fun wine tours before, in places like Australia, New Zealand, France and Chile. But I have to say, South Africa really knows how to show a girl a good wine. Together with two fellow Canadians, two Americans, two German guys who are staying at my hostel, and Birgit from Austria who I met on yesterday’s peninsula tour, we set out in a van driven by a hat-clad sommelier and guide who called himself G-lord on our mission to drink our way through the Western Cape.
We started out in the morning at in the Durbanville region at a vineyard called Altydgedacht, which is as difficult to pronounce as it is to spell. The first tastings started out around 10am, which is slightly early to be having wine. But what the heck, it’s always 5pm somewhere, right? The Durbanville area is known for its white wines, particularly Sauvigonon Blanc, which was the best white I tasted all day. I bought a bottle, even knowing that it would be near-impossible to get home due to liquids-on-planes issues. Oh well, I guess I’ll just have to consume it while I’m here.
Next, we headed to Paarl, a well known wine region surrounded by gorgeous mountains and scenery. The second vineyard we visited was a larger, more commercial establishment called Fairview, which had a huge selection of wines with amusing names, mostly having to do with goats. Some examples: “Goats Do Roam”, “Goat-Roti”, and “The Goatfather”. I have to say that the wines at Fairview were mediocre at best, especially compared to what we tasted the rest of the day. But the labels and names were by far the most creative. Nate, one of the Canadian guys, bought a bottle of Goatfather so we could have a toast to the late James Gandolfini, who we just heard passed away.
Fairview is a cheese farm as well as a winery, and our tasting was accompanied by a selection of goat and other cheeses. While nothing special by Quebec cheese standards (and yes, I’m aware how much of a cheese snob that makes me sound like), the cheeses were far better than the wrapped processed stuff that I fully expect to be eating for most of my camping safari trips. I bought some flavoured gouda, which I figure should tide me over during picnic lunches for the next couple of days.
By that point, we were all in need of some food to accompany all that wine. We had a nice lunch at a third winery, also in the Paarl region. I can’t remember the name of it now, but we didn’t do any tastings there; we just had a glass to accompany the meal.
After lunch, we were all geared up for the next round. We drove to Stellenbosch, which is probably the best-known wine region in South Africa, at least among us Quebecers since the SAQ stocks a few Stellenbosch wines. The town itself is very pretty, and it’s a student town so it has quite a bit to see and do besides wine tasting. Unfortunately I won’t have time to see much else of it, but if you have the chance to visit, I’d recommend doing so.
We visited two wineries in Stellenbosch. The second-to-last of the day was a small craft winery called Lovane, which made small quantities of wine only and had excellent red wines. I bought a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon for my second bottle of the day that I have no idea how I’ll get home. Finally, we wound up the tour at Annandale, a winery known for its higher quality wines and having some connection (I wasn’t quite clear on the details) to a former famous professional rugby player who will come around and personally sign the bottles if you buy enough. Well, Nate the Canadian from Winnipeg was happy to oblige; he bought a whole bunch of wines including a 1967 vintage, which was enough to bring out the star power for a handshake and some photo ops.
By this point in the day, we were all quite giggly, even the German guys (and have you ever heard German men giggle?) and we headed back into Cape Town. Two of our group had places they needed to be, but the rest of us decided to head to Camps Bay where Nate the Canadian was staying, in order to “help” him consume some of the wine he bought today. We went out for a nice dinner of pizza and seafood on the waterfront and ate overlooking the waves. Then, Nate invited us to come hang out at his hotel for a while, and we just sipped wine and chatted until the small hours of the morning.
Good food, good wine, good company: This is what being on vacation is all about.