Feb 14-07: Theme for the Day: Caffeination before Inebriation

Photos: view of hils from Boekenhoutskloof tasting room; view at Zorgvleit estate; Steve sampling at Ernie Els; Ernie Els Els Estate view;

Well, its official, Steve and I now have a new record for drinking – 9:30 am! We got an early start to our wine tasting tour this morning, starting right after another lovely breakfast at the B&B. We drove towards Franshoek today, and visited the estates of Thelema, Zorgvleit, Boekenhoutskloof and Ernie Els.

After so much excellent wine tasting, we realized we wanted to take some home – unfortunately with the way the carry on restrictions are these days with fluids, so we decided to go for the gusto, and ship home a case, which is exactly what we did today! So twelve lovely bottles are jetting their way to Vancouver right now, and should arrive somewhere between 6 to 18 days from now (they might even beat us home!). The duty on it is probably going to be a killer, but we are still happy we did it, and are really looking forward to having these bottles – some of each are drinkable now, and some of which can be stored for a number of years and will only improve with age.

So, a run down of the estates we visited and tasted:

Meerlust – founded in 1757 and which has been in the Meerlust family ever since. They have some excellent bottles, and we purchased the Rubicon, a red blend which is their flagship wine.
Morgenhof – another beautiful and very old estate, they had a view cool new cellar below that we looked at, and tried some excellent bottles here; we bought their signature red here and a Late Harvest dessert wine.
Fairview – since we can a good selection of their bottles in Canada, we didn’t buy here, but had an excellent lunch on the veranda.
Bellevue – a small estate, hard to find, but wow, EXCELLENT reds – Fiona & Jim, we bought you their signature red blend called Tumara, we hope you like it! Puppy sitting present! It’s in the case on its way to Vancouver, so hopefully we won’t have to wait too long for its arrival…
Thelema – another gorgeous little estate, probably one of the loveliest natural settings high on the hills; we bought
Zorgvliet – gorgeous estate, just stunning; we bought a nice bottle of Viognier here, but drank it the same evening!
Boekenhoutskloof – one of the best we visited, they make the Porcupine Ridge and Wolftraap lines that we can get in Canada; we tried (and bought) and excellent limited edition Viognier, not available outside the estate (one of these bottles is for you Andy); and their signature “Chocolate Block” red, which will only improve with age.
Ernie Els – partly owned by the famous golfer, and a relatively new estate only established in 1999, but the wines are exceptional (with price tags to match), and the tasting room is also a gorgeous architectural wonder, only outdone by their equally stunning location, high on a hill outside Stellenbosch, with views of almost 360 degrees. Wow.

Our day ended on another excellent note, the owners of the B&B decided to do a braai (BBQ) for all those guests who were interested, since it was Valentine’s Day, and many restaurants locally were fully booked. So we hung out wit the other guests (lots of guests from Denmark, Norway, England, Holland staying here), everyone was lovely, so we drank a nice rose, ate BBQ fish and steaks, and got to know everyone. The very best part of traveling sometimes, being able to meet people from all over the world…