Over the last couple of years I have gotten more and more appreciative on wine and how it is made. Not that I know a lot about it or can define why a wine is exactly good or not, I just like the drink and the ritual around it all.
What is a better way to be more appreciative around wine then going to the place where the grapes grow, see the harvesting and how the wine is made. It was time for a trip to the vineyard!
South Africa has gotten more and more on the map for their wines over the last couple of years. There are a lot of small micro climates in the warm mountains where the circumstances for grapes to grow are just really good.
Two of these well known areas around there are Stellenbosch and Franschhoek, which are about 30-60 minute drive coming from Capetown in the South West corner of the country. Stellenbosch has a lot of export of wine from their harvest. Franschhoek is a bit smaller of a town with also smaller vineyards, but it is a lot more touristy and a more of a place to stay for a bit. This is the place where you want to hang out for a weekender.
Where to go in Franschhoek?
Well good question if you ask me. Because there are so many vineyards that it is almost impossible to choose where you want to go. The vicinity of Franschhoek made a smart move on this by creating the 'Winetram' which will take you to different vineyards by tram so you don't have to drive. Genius! It is a hop on-hop off kind of system and you buy one tickt for the whole day. Every hour a train passes by and you can hop off wherever you want to visit multiple vineyards.
Now I don't really feel like visiting more than one vinyard in a day, it feels like 1 is enough. We decided to visit just one and ended up at 'La Bri' vineyard
Wine pairing
La Bri is a small vineyard that doesn't do a lot of export. There is one distributor in Germany and a bigger one in Hong Kong but for the rest the wine will stay in South Africa. Their red strong bold wines are their signature drinks and next to a wine tasting, there is also an option to do a wine pairing with snacks.
They have the choice of having 3 tasting wines accompanied with chocolate or you can have them paired with billtong (Billtong is a signature snack in South Africa which is dried and salted meat), and since both options are fantastic, why not try both of them!!
For European prices perspective: 3 pairing glasses of wine and 3 chocolates for 5 bucks? That sounds like too good to be true right?
What a scenery!!
Hazelnut chocolate and mint chocolate. Kudu billtong and pepper billtong which make the flavours in the wine come out while gazing over the fields with wine bushes growing in the back and lush mountains....
What a place. And then to think that this region is packed with vineyards that all have these fantstic places and views. It was just at random that ended up here at 'La Bri' because we were just dirving up to a vineyard on the mountain because the scenery looked cool but had no idea what it was. That one turned out closed so we ran into La Bri.
But just look at how many other options are there in the region in amounts of farmlands.
The girl that was telling us about the wines was super knowledged and also she had a good passion about how it was made. That is what makes these kinds of tastings and pairings. You can just dump a glass of wine with a snack and good luck with that. Or you can tell about the origin, the history and why the food matches the wine so good.
It was this girl who made the tour and why it was memorable instead of just cool.
I know a lot of people head over to South Africa for the wine route and stay in this region a week or something. I truly loved the scenery (as you can imagine when just looking at the image down here on how these hills look like) and I also loved these wine pairings.
But staying a week here and just drinking wine at all? Nehhh, there is so much more to explore in South Africa than just this. For me a weekend would be ust enough to head on down and chill for a bit. Although.....damn I could watch these mountains all day!
