Wine Country in South Africa

Driving up to the Wine Country from Cape Town is beautiful.  You do pass some townships on the way which are worth noting from the road.  I wouldn’t recommend going into the areas. 

Once you hit the Wine Country, the rolling hills with vineyards are a sight to see.  We drove up with Vanessa Ratcliffe who happened to be our travel agent on the trip.  Her specialty is the wine area.  She was fantastic and I’d highly recommend using her if you go to South Africa.  Her company that she owns with her brother is called Southern Destinations. 

Vanessa took us to a few vineyards where we got to meet the owners and taste some wines that were not yet ready.  It was really fun.  Her family owns Warwick where we stopped first.  Her aunt is the maven behind this organization.  Vanessa told us the story about a young woman who wanted to marry someone her family disapproved of.  Her father said he would agree to the marriage if she could create a cup where 2 people could drink at the same time without spilling anything.  Hence, her and her husband to be created a dual wine cup.  Here is a picture of me and Josh pretending to drink out of it.   The other picture is of us enjoying the tasting. 

We drove up to Franschhoek for lunch to a small restaurant called La Petite Ferme.  This restaurant is a must if you are in that area.  It is truly a gorgeous location which you can see in the picture on the left and the food is quite good.  You can also stay at the Bed and Breakfast there.  Franschhoek is one of the 2 towns in the wine area.  The other town is called Stellenbosch where we stayed at a resort called Spier.  If I went back, I’d stayed in Franschhoek instead.  The town has galleries, stores etc and has a very sophisticated groovy vibe. 

We hung out at Spier the following day and took it easy.  We also had dinner there at Moyo which is a big African barbecue spread.  The kids liked it and got their faces painted.   The other night we had dinner at 96 Winery Road which was a small gourmet restaurant that specialized in steaks. 

2 days in wine country and off to the next leg of the trip.