Rather than do a day or overnight trip to Stellenbosch we decided to rent a car and have the freedom to choose which winerys to visit. We rented a car from Avis for 2 days for $76.00. We originally only planned to spend one night in Stellenbosch but it was very quickly apparent we would need two.
The wine farms, surprisingly, have very limited hours on the weekends. We arrived at our hotel around noon on Saturday and immediately left to get in a few tastings. Our first stop was the Waterford Estate.
WATERFORD: For R70 (or roughly $7.00USD) we chose the 'Waterford State Experience.' This included 6 wines, 3 of which were paired with chocolates. The wines are delicious. The first was the Waterford Estate Rose-Mary. Absolutely delicious. It was very light with only a rose aftertaste. A perfect substitute for champagne. My other favorite was the Pecan Stream Chenin Blanc, it was dryer than the other Chenin's we tasted.
We then went across the street to the Dornier Estate... The Estate is beautiful but the wines are ordinary. If you're limited on time, I wouldn't necessarily recommend this stop.
The next day we woke up early to make the most of our time. We went to the road where Tokara, Delaire Graff, etc are. These are supposed to be among the most beautiful wine farms, and they did not disappoint!
DELAIRE GRAFF: Absolutely beautiful. Extensive estate. Great place to lunch. For R70 (roughly $7.00USD) we tasted 5 wines (of our choice). The offer a corked and uncorked Chenin Blanc, and surprisingly we both preferred the corked version. And their Chardonnay was oaky and delicious.
ZORGVLIET: Also a beautiful estate. For R20 (roughly $2.00USD) we tasted 5 wines (our choice). Our favorites were their champagne and Sauvignon Blanc Rose.
TOKARA: Free olive oil and wine tasting. Also a very nice estate. People often recommend to lunch here (it is beautiful) but I think Delaire Graff is more of a treat.
We stopped at Warwick and Spier, neither of which I have much to report on. Not on a high priority list.
KLEIN ZALZE: They were about to close but offered us a tasting of 3 wines (for free! It's not usually free but since we couldn't do the full tasting they didn't charge). We arrived just before sunset and decided to drive around the estate after the tasting. It was absolutely gorgeous! What a fortuitous final stop.
Stellenbosch is a college town, very quaint and beautiful. There are plenty of restaurants in town and quite a decent bar scene. However we were all wined out and quite groggy and sadly couldn't rally to check out the nightlife. Next time! I would definitely love to come back here!
Our final morning we drove back to Cape Town. The weather was intermittent and we decided to try for Table Mountain. While the cable car was running it was nothing but cloud and fog. Rather than waste $20 to see nothing but white we just enjoyed the view from the park and headed to the airport. There was quite a lot of traffic and a bit of a stressful drive but we made it, accident free, and returned our rental car. Ironically the sky had cleared up and was absolutely beautiful our. We checked our bags in and laid outside the airport soaking up the rays before our long, long journey home.
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