Lekker, Lekker, Lekker!

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M – The last few days have been real hard – NOT. Our friends truck that we are using for our overland trip through Namibia and Botswana has been delayed in the garage so we had a few days to kill. We decided to hit some of South Africa’s wineries. The main wine region is only about an hour from the center of Cape Town although there seem to be wineries scattered all over the Western Cape. We stayed in probably the largest wine town, Stellenbosch, but also visited probably the next largest towns Paarl and Franschhoek. Each about 30kms away from Stellenbosch. Franschhoek is the prettiest as it is surrounded on three sides by mountains. Paarl is know for being the birth place of the Afrikanas language and holds the jail that Nelson Mandela was released from at the end of his 28 years of imprisonment.

Although we are not wine connoisseurs we have some wine tasting experience as we live not far from Napa and Sonoma in California and have visited the wineries there many times as well as other wineries in Paso Robles, Washington, Oregon, and France. Kate has also visited wineries in Australia and New Zealand. Most of the wineries we have visited in the last few days are in a different league to the US wineries when it comes to price, service and setting. Hopefully the many photos I have attached will give you some idea of the stunning scenery and lavish wine farms that we visited. It is fair to say that there are a few vineyards in Napa that are architecturally stunning but most, although very pleasant, do not cause you to pull out the camera like the ones we have visited in the last few days. It is not unusual here to make a statement and build something that little bit extravagant. Better still, many of the wine farms also have great restaurants included (apparently Australia and New Zealand do this as well). Many have terraces attached for you to enjoy the views with your tasting, no standing inside a dark tasting room if you don’t want to!

Re the wines, they are on average about 25-30% of the price of the wines in Napa! Think $10 for something very drinkable vs. at least $30-$40 plus tax for a similar wine in Napa. They seem to focus on making and describing their wines as ‘very drinkable’. I would agree that they have achieved this although sometimes I felt they lacked some of the depth of the better Napa wines I have tasted. This is really a minor criticism though, and I suspect it is due to the fact that many of the vines here have only been grown/ harvested for 20 years (I visited a Premier Cru winery in Bordeaux a few years back where the owner said that he they had to replant the vineyards after World War II and that only now were they starting to get the depth of flavors he wanted for the wine).

Food continues to be great. We pushed the boat out a little and had dinner at Rust en Vrede Winery. This winery’s restaurant is now ranked 56th in the Pellegrino World’s Restaurants Ranking. The food, service and setting were all excellent and the wine pairings amazing. Best of all, the price was a fraction of what you we have paid for similar/inferior experiences at rated establishments in London, NY, Chicago, Vegas and San Francisco. The best food bargain in Stellenbosch however is a restaurant called Apprentice. Here the students from the local culinary school practice their skills in the kitchen and dining room. We had an excellent three course dinner with local wine and an after dinner drink. The taste combinations were first class and the bill ridiculous. With tip it came to less than $80! I think Kate wants to move here! In fact she is already settling into the language with frequent use of ‘Ja’ (for yes), ‘Divine’ (for good) and ‘Shame’. The last one is for when you don’t really know what to say but want to say something anyway. She will have to explain it further.

In summary - we rarely drank a wine we didn’t like and thought the white wines at all the wineries, particularly the Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay’s, were excellent. If you even vaguely like wine and are in South Africa this is a must do trip.

Thank you Mitsubishi for delaying the repairs to my friends truck!

As they say here …

“Lekker, Lekker, Lekker!”

(Translated: in the US – Awesome!; in the UK – Great!). Keep scrolling down for lots of photos …

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Photos

Neederberg Winery
Enduring our only rainy afternoon!