Michael's knowledge of the region extended into helping us arrange a driver so that we could all enjoy the best that Stellenbosch had to offer. He recruited Astrid, a family friend whom we paid a nominal fee to cart us around. She also became a font of local knowledge and when she picked us up from our hotel in Cape Town, we felt the pressure of our time in the city melt away.
The road to wine country is dotted with townships that quickly give way to hills and mountains.
Our first destination, Meerlust, is a family estate established in 1756. Because we arrived on a Tuesday in the middle of low season, we were the only visitors. The tasting room is a small one and the woman serving us was kind and very knowledgeable. Michael would later tell us that in the wineries across the region, for many years common practice was to pay their employees in wine, therefore creating loyal employees through alcohol dependence. This practice has since been banned but it added another layer of discrimination to this fraught country.
Michael was sure to include a wide range of wineries on our itinerary so our next stop took us to the far larger, far more commercial Waterford estate. Situated on 120 hectares of land, this place was built for slow tippling into the afternoon and that's precisely what we did. It started when a plate of bread and olive oil, the estate's own, was casually dropped onto our courtyard table. Perfect marketing.
The winery is run by award winning Cellar Master Kevin Arnold and boasts an ample shop and various excursions including a wine drive, trail walk and behind the scenes tour. The tours were not available out-of-season but that didn't stop families and couples from lounging in the courtyard.
We enjoyed the winter sun, which still happened to be a lot stronger than any Michigan or London winter sun, and sipped our four large tasting portions well into the afternoon.
Several purchases of wine and olive oil later, we made our way back to the car, ready to amend our itinerary to include one final winery before closing time. This one kind of picked us because, as it turns out, it was one of the few that was still open for the day. But Jordan is far from a consolation prize. It boasts a tasting room, cafe and restaurant, all spilling out onto an ample terrace. The grounds themselves are a visual feast and we fell in love with this place.
We'd arrived just in time for last orders of wine and food and proceeded to close the place down as we got the best out of the meat, cheese and bread paired with our wine. I bought several bottles of red wine here; they sustained me on several London rainy days later in the year.
Our day's tasting ended when the winery closed and Astrid kindly dropped us off at our Stellenbosch accommodation, a mile or so away from the city centre itself. We eventually recovered from the day's wine and made our way to pick up the rental car that would take us around for the remainder of the trip. The next day, we were headed to Franschoek for more wine tasting.
And two days after that, on our drive down the Cape, we snuck in one final Stellenbosch winery. Tokara was perhaps the most commercial of the ones we visited and their tasting room was located in a sterile white building high up with views to the grapes below. To be honest, we were a bit underwhelmed. Service was slow and inattentive and we didn't love the wine. But the views were spectacular and the restaurant behind the tasting room was both well-located and yum.
Considering we were only able to visit four wineries, I understand why Michael recommended at least three days of tasting. But given the hangover from two days of tasting, I think we timed it right. We considered our time in Stellenbosch as dipping a toe into the world of South African wine and what a treat it was. Even if you're only remotely interested in wine, the restaurants and views make a trip through this beautiful part of the world worthwhile.
No comments:
Post a Comment