Stellenbosch


The South African wine industry has been around for well over 300 years - long enough to get it right - and Stellenbosch and nearby Franschhoek are the “Napa Valley.”  Or they would be if the Napa Valley were much older and surrounded by spectacular mountains.

There’s a seemingly endless choice for wine tasting, so we opted to visit one per day.  We started with a visit to Franschhoek.


We picked the winery - Graff - because of its setting on a hillside between Franschhoek and Stellenbosch, assuming that the views would be worth the visit.  They were, and so were the gardens, water features, and artwork.  The wine was good, too.




This is a newer winery.  The current owners (who added the buildings, gardens and artwork) purchased it in the early 2000’s and kept the original owner on as head vintner.

Today we took a shorter trip to the Blaauwklippen Estate - just across the highway from our hotel.  This is one of the old wineries, dating back to 1682.




And, again, John made some four-footed friends.


























Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Last stop - Clarens

Image
The drive from Bloemfontein to Clarens brought us back to the Drakensbergs, this time along the western border of Lesotho.  We turned off and followed signs to the Queen Victoria lookout, which brought us here.  Certainly looks like her. This area doesn’t appear to be experiencing the drought that’s plaguing the south. As we left the Cape provinces and entered Free State, we noticed a decided decline in the state of the roads.  Potholes.  Lots of them. Clarens is a small resort town in the mountains near Golden Gate National Park, and it’s our last stop before heading home.   We drove out to the national park this afternoon - the mountains are gorgeous, and we saw several wildebeests and a herd of antelope (not close enough for photos, though, unfortunately).  There were some brief but intense showers this morning, resulting in a pond in the road. This time John decided to brave it - until the water came up to the door sill.  So we had to back up the h...
Read more

Malelane

Image
We were disappointed that Jock Safari Lodge in Kruger National Park had become too expensive, but John found Mhlati Guest House, located just outside the Malelane Gate, which had excellent reviews on TripAdvisor.  We thought it would be fine.  Little did we imagine just how fine it is!   The owner, Eric, is a retired architect who designed and built the complex, with incredible attention to detail.  One of the first things I noticed was the thatched roof over the “lapa” (gathering area).  The bottom layer - visible from inside - is an attractive reed-like grass, which is then covered by many layers of the traditional grass that provides rain proofing and insulation. The pool and gardens were inviting - a welcome relief from the heat and oppressive humidity. One of the flowering trees was frangipani - complete with the wonderful scent that’s used in soaps and colognes. We did have to be careful where we parked, though.  One of the trees dropped hard, heavy p...
Read more

By the sea

Image
Hermanus is an upscale beach resort town on the southern Atlantic coast (the Indian Ocean is east of here on the other side of Cape Agulhas). We’re staying at the Walker Bay Manor Guest House, which is in a great location with lovely public areas. However, our room is less than optimal - lots of street noise (we have to keep the windows open since it isn’t air conditioned), and a shower that’s barely big enough for me to fit into, much less John. But it’s located across the street from the Cliff Walk - so I opted for a morning walk along it. I walked as far as the mouth of the Mossel River, about a mile or so, and then back again. All along the paved pathway there were viewpoints with benches. There was a small sandy beach amid the rocky cliffs. Much to my delight, I came across Moby Dick’s final resting place - I didn’t recall from my multiple forced readings of that interminable novel that the great white whale ever dies, unlike crazy Captain Ahab and most of the rest of the crew of ...
Read more