Catch up blog: Wine Tasting
I had a few more items I wanted to share about South Africa but didn’t have time before we were ensconced in departure preparations. These “catch up” blogs will be out of chronological order but hopefully are still worth the read.
The wineries surrounding Cape Town are remarkable!
We made several wine tasting excursions to Stellenbosch and Franshhoek and never came home disappointed (or empty-handed!). Each region is only ~ 1 hour from Cape Town…which translates to ~ $30 Uber ride each way. The countryside around the winelands is beautiful, and the wineries sport stunning architectures, artwork, and views – not to mention delectable wines that are at least half the price of their US equivalents.
“Franschhoek” in Africaans means “French Corner”. In 1688, the Huguenots, facing persecution in France, fled to South Africa and established this farming community outside of Cape Town. They supplied citrus to ships to ward off scurvy and also leveraged their viticulture know-how to begin crafting wines. Today, there are nearly 50 wineries in the Franschhoek region.
Franschhoek offers daily wine trams to their local wineries, where you can hop on/hop off to visit up to 6 wine farms on each route and tram operators hold your wine purchases until the end of the day. Many wineries offer oyster, cheese, and/or chocolate pairings alongside their wines, in addition to charcuterie platters or full meals that you can partake while sipping wine and enjoying panoramic views. We sampled many different red and white varietals and were much impressed with pinotage, a South African grape cultivated in 1925 that’s a mix between pinot noir and hermitage. We brought an assortment of wines back to Cape Town to taste again before deciding which ones to purchase for Catalyst’s “wine cellar” (aka bilge).
I suspect our experience at South Africa’s wine farms was much like Napa Valley in the olden days: minimal wine tasting fees and generous pours of delicious, not-too-expensive wines. Add wine tasting to your list of things to do in Cape Town!
