Wine tasting, the African way

Dear Readers,

Greetings from Cape Town. Life in here is still very good. I have been rather busy with my master’s programme but I have now handed in my thesis at the end of last week and can focus more on all the fun this city has to offer. I still have two exams, one at the end of the month and the last one on the 2nd of November. I am very excited!

I have been on a mission to tick off all the tasks from the Cape Town magazine bucket list and have now made it to 6 left. This means that in a short second, I’ll post how everything went and my own tips related to the bucket list (here’s the link to the list so you can already have a look: https://www.capetownmagazine.com/bucket-list). In the meanwhile, a few weeks ago we participated in a wine festival called Franschhoek Uncorked which was amazing.

Wine tasting and braaing (a barbeque) are the two South African past-times. Maybe it is safe to say that many tourists come here for the first one and all the locals practise the second one on daily basis. The summer has now started and the weather is really inviting you to sit outside and enjoy the light breeze before the scorching days start again.

The tickets to the Uncorked festival were R150 (around 10 euros) and the festival involved 16 vineyards in the Franschhoek area which you could visit for free over a weekend. We started with a few friends on Saturday morning and made it to three different vineyards during the day.

Boschendal. The restaurant and the garden looked amazing and their white wine was tasty.

Lynx. They had unlimited wine but the estate itself was not as picturesque or organised.

Paserene. Great live music and a nice yard but the wine was nothing spectacular.

The second day we were more prepared and asked for some advice from the first vineyard: Leopard’s Leap. I very much like this estate and their restaurant is highly recommended.

We covered the rest of the vineyards based on the suggestions given to us. Rickety Bridge (which was our favourite). The entry to the estate looks very dodgy so we had our doubts but the staff was amazing, the cheese platter one of the highlights of the day and the DJ very entertaining. They tasted 5 different wines which all were yummy.

Dieu Donne, which I would not recommend. The view is one of the best in Franschhoek as the estate is on a hilltop but the wine is overpriced and disappointing.

Black Elephant which had a cool concept but not much wine to speak of. They tasted 8 different wines which all came with a small snack but the taste cannot be said much of.

And finally, Boekenhoutskloof which is famous for their red wine called the Chocolate Block. They hosted for an hour or two after the official event had already finished, had a fantastic jazz band and offered unlimited amounts of the yummy Block. Would highly recommend.

Franschhoek is a very lovely wine region 27 kilometers from Stellenbosch, away from Cape Town. Besides wine and food, there is not much else to do but those two things are definitely worth the drive. We wanted to get to know the area better as I had only visited it once before and no one else had ever been. There are hundreds of vineyards which is why events like this truly assist you in showing you the best of them.

Unfortunately, drinking and driving is rather common in South Africa with one of the longest commutes in the world. Luckily, uber works well in all of Cape Town and there are other car services, such as Good Fellows, who will get you home safely. And who wouldn’t want to wake up in a beautiful B&B and drive home the next afternoon?

You will be able to do similar wine tours around Stellenbosch as well. The R44 highway is particularly popular for its estates such as the Waterford. Wine festivals are very popular in the Western Cape wine regions as they are also the main income for the area. The festivals are also mainly filled with local people.

Thank for having us, Franschhoek and we will definitely be back soon!

Best wishes,

Mira, a friend of wine.

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