Photos: Morgenhof Estate; lunch at Fairview; dinner and sunset at Tokara
Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end…Jane and Karl headed out this morning, they are on their way to JoBurg and a game reserve near there in the Pilanesberg, as they must head back to Vancouver on the 16th. So after a lovely breakfast here poolside, we dropped them at Cape Town airport (just a short 30 minute drive from here), and headed back to begin the serious wine drinking portion of our trip itinerary!
We began the first day of our 2 full days in Stellenbosch, driving around and visiting some of the hundreds of wineries. The countryside is absolutely stunning, and the weather is hot and clear—just perfect for our time here. Our John Platter wine guide has turned out to be invaluable with our touring around, although there are so many wines that he rates as 4 stars and 5 stars, so that even if we just stuck to those wineries with a range of range that are rated that high, there are still dozens of places in the region to visit. And we also tried to choose places that perhaps we could NOT buy their wines in Canada, so as to find something truly special and one-of-a-kind. So, its kind of just throw a dart at the book, and see where things take you!
The wine prices here are incredibly reasonable, of the bottles we have seen that we also purchase in Canada, anywhere from ½ to 1/3 of the price we would pay in Vancouver. It would just make you cry. South Africans are spoiled by an abundance of excellent and reasonably priced wines…another asset to add to a country that is already rich with merits!
We visited a few estates today, including Meerlust, Morgenhof, Fairview and Bellevue, but I’ll include all of them under the complete list for the Feb 14th blog entry. Needless to say, we had a very fun day, really enjoyable tasting all the wines, and I only got us lost once, which I figured wasn’t too bad. One highlight is our lunch on the veranda of the Fairview estate (yes, Andy, that Fairview, one of our favourite viogniers) – Fairview also produces the Goats Do Roam line, hence the logo, which comes from this weird brick tower in the front yard, with a goal ladder on it, and these goats that sit in there and look out the windows. I guess it must be baited with a lot of food. Their restaurant has an extensive cheese menu (much of which they produce there), so we order a number of samplers, a delicious farm salad for two and fresh baked bread. Sitting in the sun, having our lunch made us feel incredibly spoiled indeed!
Our hosts at the B&B helped us to make a reservation at an incredible restaurant/winery called Tokara, which was just a 10 minute drive away – it was a pass, so somewhat elevated, with an incredible sunset view over the Stellenbosch area valley. Wow. Dinner was really spectacular, I had the ostrich fillet, Steve had a SA line fish here called kingklip. With two glasses of wine each, port, appetizers and desert, it came to the equivalent of $120CDN (including tip). We are continually stunned by how reasonable it is to eat out here – a dinner of similar caliber in Vancouver would have cost us 2-3 times as much. Needless to say, with such food and setting, we couldn’t have asked for a more romantic evening – a little early Valentine’s present to ourselves!
We began the first day of our 2 full days in Stellenbosch, driving around and visiting some of the hundreds of wineries. The countryside is absolutely stunning, and the weather is hot and clear—just perfect for our time here. Our John Platter wine guide has turned out to be invaluable with our touring around, although there are so many wines that he rates as 4 stars and 5 stars, so that even if we just stuck to those wineries with a range of range that are rated that high, there are still dozens of places in the region to visit. And we also tried to choose places that perhaps we could NOT buy their wines in Canada, so as to find something truly special and one-of-a-kind. So, its kind of just throw a dart at the book, and see where things take you!
The wine prices here are incredibly reasonable, of the bottles we have seen that we also purchase in Canada, anywhere from ½ to 1/3 of the price we would pay in Vancouver. It would just make you cry. South Africans are spoiled by an abundance of excellent and reasonably priced wines…another asset to add to a country that is already rich with merits!
We visited a few estates today, including Meerlust, Morgenhof, Fairview and Bellevue, but I’ll include all of them under the complete list for the Feb 14th blog entry. Needless to say, we had a very fun day, really enjoyable tasting all the wines, and I only got us lost once, which I figured wasn’t too bad. One highlight is our lunch on the veranda of the Fairview estate (yes, Andy, that Fairview, one of our favourite viogniers) – Fairview also produces the Goats Do Roam line, hence the logo, which comes from this weird brick tower in the front yard, with a goal ladder on it, and these goats that sit in there and look out the windows. I guess it must be baited with a lot of food. Their restaurant has an extensive cheese menu (much of which they produce there), so we order a number of samplers, a delicious farm salad for two and fresh baked bread. Sitting in the sun, having our lunch made us feel incredibly spoiled indeed!
Our hosts at the B&B helped us to make a reservation at an incredible restaurant/winery called Tokara, which was just a 10 minute drive away – it was a pass, so somewhat elevated, with an incredible sunset view over the Stellenbosch area valley. Wow. Dinner was really spectacular, I had the ostrich fillet, Steve had a SA line fish here called kingklip. With two glasses of wine each, port, appetizers and desert, it came to the equivalent of $120CDN (including tip). We are continually stunned by how reasonable it is to eat out here – a dinner of similar caliber in Vancouver would have cost us 2-3 times as much. Needless to say, with such food and setting, we couldn’t have asked for a more romantic evening – a little early Valentine’s present to ourselves!
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