Stellenbosch

Oh how sophisticated we are. What is a trip to South Africa without partaking in a wine tour? Our driver picked us up around 9:30am (us being Margo, James, Hannah, their coworker John and myself) and, possibly by his own planning, took us to the most sophisticated winery first. It proved most beneficial since we were most coherent, but given it was 10am and we hadn't eaten breakfast we obviously were less so on the way out.

This winery in particular had a group of dogs basking in the morning sun which can't be a bad deal. Imagine living day to day with sunny skies, crisp air, mountains in the background and acres upon acres to roam free. Given such a life they were very friendly and had a strong interest in our bread and cheese picnic before heading off to the next vineyard.

Aside from the dogs this repeated for the next six and a half hours, time passing more and more quickly. Our plan was to have lunch after one particular vineyard but this is where I will say the day went uphill. Walking in there are stone walls and old paintings, down the hall a room with chairs and a zebra skin rug. Keep walking and you enter another cellar-like room with cobwebs everywhere, a piano and a counter. The previous owner demanded the building be kept exactly as it was, including the cobwebs because he believed they helped wine in some way (that detail is a bit fuzzy).

The first woman helping us did not seem enthused by a group of young Americans halfway into their wine tour so we were passed on to Roderick who quickly realized his dry sense of humor would be well received. He hooked us up with healthy pours and even let John play and sing 'Orinoco Flow (sail away)' by Enya, so the only logical follow up is to invite him to our cookout later that evening! He and a friend came but that will be for a later post.

Between talking, singing, drinking and the crazy awesome cheese plate we realized we would have to pass on lunch to squeeze in a couple more vineyards, one of which was that of golfer Ernie Els. We were not greeted by the friendliest staff or the best wine but the view was incredible. My toes loved the view.

Like all great things the day had to end and Raymond drove us back to the house to get ready for the cookout. As you can see by the last photo we were a bit spent and the trip back to Camps Bay served as a good wine-induced nap.

That day will go down as one of the best for this trip. We lucked out with amazing weather, a great and patient driver and more laughs than I can count - oh and the wine aged french barrels was good too :).