This morning we had a slightly later start than usual but it was still a big day of travelling. we went out to the Stellenbosch wine region today to do some wine tasting.
The whole region is named after the Governor of Cape Town Simon van der Stel and means Stel’s Bush. The Stellenbosch region was founded in 1679. A lot of vineyards trace their history back to around this time.
We were picked up just after 9 by Jamie our driver and guide for the day. G had subcontracted the tour to Wineflies. There were 12 of us in the van with two ladies joining the 10 of us from the G tour.
Our first stop was Simonsig where we started with a wine tasting of about 2 sparkling, 2 whites and 2 reds. I’m not a huge fan of the white wines but I did enjoy the sparkling and the reds. The views from the farm were spectacular. We learnt about a varietal common South Africa called Pinotage. They served some biltong with the last wine which included a dried Kudu sausage (Boerewors).
We then moved on to Mitres Edge, where they produce predominantly red wines. The vintner had put out a paring plate for us to try the wines with. The foods ranged from white chocolate blended with lemon grass and coriander to a strong cheese. I ended up buying a bottle on Cinsault which is their Pinotage and is paired with white chocolate with passion fruit and black pepper (which was delicious) their recommendation is that the Cinsault is served chilled so we will probably have this on the first night we are on safari.
We then went to another vineyard for lunch (no wine for me) where we had a sausage on a roll with caramelised onion (the sausage was Kudu. We tried a chicken kebab with a potato salad and a coleslaw made of carrot and pineapple. To finish it off we had a traditional cheese and tomatoes sandwich cooked on the coals from the braai.
Our final vineyard was Vergenoeg Low (there is an umlaut on the Low) which was established in 1696 (new owners took over in 2015). This vineyard is down on the coast, close to the water and the grapes are grown in limestone soil. The location means that the wines taste different to the other vineyards which are in the hills and away from the ocean. We had two whites and two reds.
After we got back to the hotel we went down the Time Out market we found the other day to find that it closed at 6 (missed it by 18 minutes). Silver lining there is a food market next door which has lots of little kitchens providing locals opportunities to open a restaurant without the overhead of a full restaurant setting. I tried the Braai plate with steamed bread and Stu got a banana blossom bao. We had Malva Pudding and vanilla bean ice cream for dessert from one of the vendors in the market place – this was delicious and had a gingerbread taste to it. Hopefully Malva Pudding is available all over South Africa.
davstuholidays 