Wine Country

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Today we had a new tour guide as Owen had been previously booked, Havelyn was great though! Havelyn said he was classified colored even though his family was European... they could have applied to be reclassified as white, and chose not to. We asked him how African Americans (or blacks from other countries and other non-whites) were treated if they visited South Africa during Apartheid... he said they were given documents declaring them honorary whites!

First we went to the winery with the car collection, 80 cars out of 300 on display, they rotate through them.

Then we went to Boschendal which had lovely grounds and an old house. 2nd oldest estate in the country, built in 1685. As a side note, we learned that African Oak trees grow fast... too fast and thus the wood is too soft to use for wine barrels so they are imported from France and the U.S.

Wines were also not good here so skipping the rundown this time. We have found some South African wines we like, but not many... they really need to age...

For lunch we went to Indochine at DeLaire Estate for an amazing lunch! Starters were potato and spinach fritter with tomato and cilantro sauce and cucumbers as well as the eggplant side dish. My main dish were 3 types of curry: yellow (had mandarin orange slices, sprouts, mushrooms, etc), green (green onions, broccoli, peas, sprouts, etc), and red (tofu, lychee, sprouts, etc). John had a beef curry.

After lunch, we went to Lanzerac wine estate for a wonderful chocolate and wine paring. They were the first place to bottle a Pinotage.
1. Chard and white chocolate
2. Rose' and milk chocolate
3. Pinotage and chocolate covered cherry
4. Cab and milk chocolate with cinnamon and nutmeg - this was our favorite and we looked into having some shipped back, but it would have been $400 in shipping which doubles the price of the wine.
5. Port (which wasn't for sale) and double chocolate mousse truffle

Last we went to Vrede en Lust Estate - I actually liked the "Jess" Rose' first Rose' I've ever had that I actually enjoyed! Didn't really care for the rest of their wines here.

Havelyn then took us for a drive to look at the views and we saw Baboons!!

Dinner was at Reuben's. I started with a deliciously spicy pumpkin soup and grainy bread. Entree was gnocchi with a bunch of veggies. John had the Brussels sprouts and pancetta and yellowtail pan seared.

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