Wine touring

SOUTH AFRICAN WINE TOURING!

South Africa has some amazing wines!  We chose a tour company called Cape Fusion and our guide Ryan was a lot of fun. He was very easy going and altered the tour based on the things we liked. Our first afternoon was spent in the Constantia wine region not far from Cape Town.

 We visited four wineries, Starting with lunch at  Constantia  Glen which consisted of a cheese platter and a meat charcuterie with wonderful baguettes and a flight of different wines.  We purchased two reds, not sure if they will make it home or not.







Next was High Constantia which was a wonderful small family estate winery who specializes in champagne.








Our host was the wine makers wife, she provided us with the usual glass of several different reds and was easy to talk with as we sat on the terrace over looking a convent in the background. Needless to say we bought more wine!

We ended the day at Steenberg which was completely different from High Constantia in that it was very contemporary.  The tasting size is very generous in South Africa so a 'lie down' was in order after our tour today.

 After our lie down we headed out to a great little pub 'Tigers Milk' on Long street before calling it a day. Our Airbnb apartment is located in a very central location between long and Bree street which is where all the pubs and restaurants are. You can even take your wine home with you if you don't finish the bottle.  Funny thing, that never happened.

Our second day with Ryan was in the Stallenbach wine region.

                       





Today we started at Fairview for a cheese and wine pairing. The wine tasting room was stunning as was the cheese and wine.  It was only about 10 in the morning so Bill was struggling with wine but enjoyed the cheese.

Bill had been chatting with Ryan on the sly and arranged a quick detour into a huge car museum so the Brian could enjoy his passion for a few minutes. Pretty cool to see a diverse collection of cars all owned by one family, something like 340 cars from model T to Formula 1 cars, we only saw 80 but were they ever beauties.

 Our lunch was booked at Delaire Graaf restaurant located on a beautiful property over looking the valley. The sommelier recommended a pinotage that was the best I've tasted yet and the food as well as the presentation were amazing.

Then it was off to Rust en Vrede which is a medium sized family owned winery.  It was a lovely farm located in the middle of no where so it was very peaceful. (that is until we arrived)!

Ryan had decided he wanted to take us to one last winery called Meerlust before we called it a day.  Meerlust has been making wine for 8 generations and specializes in reds. We made it just before closing and were very happy we did.  The reds were amazing.  We purchased 2 more bottles to take home. Much to my surprise SA Merlot is one of my favourites. Hopefully they make it home in our backpacks!

Wow what a day!  South African wine country is very similar to that of our Okanagan but they definitely know how to make red wine.  Ryan was a great tour guide and fun to hang out with.  We won't see him for a few days as our next tour is not until Monday.  We tried to book a walking/eating tour with him but he was booked.

We decided to check out the harbour at V&A waterfront which is a short cab ride from the apartment. We had never tried Uber taxi so thought I would give it a try.  I downloaded the app and ordered the ride and within 2 min the driver was here and we were on our way. It is all charged through the credit card on file so no cash changes hands. Worked like a charm.  We had a tasty seafood dinner at the harbour house restaurant