South Africa is a well-known wine-producing region of the world. Stellenbosch is the unofficial capital of the wine region here, and is less than an hour from Cape Town in a beautiful mountainous valley.
Stellenbosch Vistas
Stellenbosch Vistas
Unbeknownst to me, Sal and Lar had never been wine-tasting before (Ted and I had been on a few tasting excursions in both Argentina and New Zealand). Each wine region has their own approach, but here in South Africa the norm was to show up at a winery, pay a small fee and get the opportunity to taste 4-6 different types of wine. We were warmed up pretty quickly when our first stop served us 6 wines before 11am!
Morning tasting!
I was hoping to get Sal and Lar on a cellar tour so that they could hear about how the wine is made and how they store it, bottle it, etc. but after 3 attempts, we realized that we should have made appointments. Apparently, many of the workers were busy in the cellars due to it being harvest season and couldn’t be bothered to give a tour at a moment’s notice. The nerve! We think they should take notes from the Argentines, who will show you around any time of day.
Anyway, we had a beautiful day driving around and exploring all the amazing properties. After our strong start with the wine-tasting in the morning, I was reminded that my folks aren’t really winos and were just as happy to stop into a winery and have a look around – they didn’t feel the need to do the tastings! That is not something I inherited from them.
Tastings!
Stellenbosch