The Winelands

The following blog post was written on the morning of the 5th of August while driving to Cape Town!

As I mentioned previously, our accommodations in Franschoek were unbelievably nice. The Lavender Cottage is an incredible bargain considering the large size and plushness of the accommodations. After sleeping in yesterday morning, allowing our bodies to relax after several long days of driving and one marginal hostel, we woke and planned out day in the winelands.

We started with a cellar tour and tasting at Cabriere at Haute Cabriere. Although a few of the wines were good, a few were also-well-bad. In the picture you can see Jill dumping one of the less favored whiles into the slush bucket. The tour was nice and the tour guide, who also did our tasting, was informative.

Next we headed over to Boschendal for a tasting. We found the wines there to be fantastic! The woman running the tasting room was incredible helpful explaining the differences in the types of grapes, of which I never knew so many types of groups existed. While here we ate at the Bread and Wine restaurant, which got good reviews in our guidebooks, but turned out to be more expensive, less food, and not as tasty as we were hoping. The deserts there are fantastic, though.

Our final tasting was at the Boekenhoutskloof estate, home of The Chocolate Block wine, which they are famous for. The estate property here turned out to be very lovely and the tasting room new. The gentleman running the tasting here was very knowledgeable about wines and soccer, of which he expressed concern for the South African team and their lack of offense. Our day in the winelands was incredible pleasant.

The weather was perfect, the people were friendly, and the pizza place had half-price Mondays. Overall a great day!