Winelands

A very laid back day today with short drives in beautiful clear skies. This guest house we are staying in at Paarl has turned out to be a real gem. The meals are excellent and the owners very friendly. Breakfast was in a designated space that had both inside and outside seating and you could order a cooked breakfast to your liking that was served fresh and hot.

We hit the road around 9.15am and headed back to Stellenbosch for the first of our wine tastings. There is a significant monument on the outskirts of Paarl that celebrates the origin of the Afrikaans language. It consists of 3 concrete spires of varying height, each representing an area of origin. The biggest influence was from Europe, followed by Africa and then Asia. Our first winery was Fairview Estate and the grounds were immaculate in presentation. We sampled 6 wines and an appropriate local cheese for each and the accompanying talk was succinct, informative and professionally done. Most bottles averaged around $6-7 per bottle which is cheap for winery prices and the quality was quite good. The goat house was an interesting feature in the front yard and the accompanying photo does it more justice than my description.

We revisited Stellenbosch for a long lunch break and took advantage of the time to visit the brilliant museum which consisted of 4 heritage listed houses dating back to the late 1600's. They have been beautifully restored and furnished with period furniture. Three of the houses had attendants who gave us a brief rundown of the history. A big surprise for me is the amount of thatched roofing in both Stellenbosch and Paarl. The botanical garden was also worth a walk through but the ambience of the outside cafe in the gardens was spoiled by dreadful service. Many of the mature oak trees in the town were planted in the 17th century by the town's founder, Simon van der Stel and this gives the town a real European flavour.

Our afternoon wine tasting was at the Muratie Estate in Knorhoek Valley and while the winery is historically significant with sweeping mature oaks, the wine tasting was overshadowed by the morning's effort. Prices were more than double in many instances and the quality no better.

There was a widespread blackout at 6pm lasting 3 hours but the guest house owners had prepared a BBQ, so we were well prepared for it. All in all, a great day topped off with another terrific meal.

PS: this first photo taken across the vineyard in Stellenbosch shows the proximity to Cape Town as you can Table Mountain in the distance.