Wine Tasting Delight!

Today we ventured into yet another side of South Africa, the beautiful wine lands! Only about thirty minutes outside of Cape Town, are several stunning vineyards, and the wine that they produce is beginning to rival the Napa Valley! Katie and I had made reservations at a hostel (yes mom, a hostel!) in the area of Stellenbosch called Stumble Inn. We also booked a wine tour through them that started around 10:30am. But before we got there we had a crazy taxi adventure. The driver swore he knew where it was when he picked us up, but over an hour and a half of driving around seemed to suggest otherwise. We called the inn several times, and they gave him very clear and easy directions, but he STILL couldn’t get us there. Finally we just had him pull over, and the tour guide came and found us! What a relief. We were an hour late for the tour, but we didn’t miss much, and Hantus drove us straight to the first stop.

The entire day was just delightful! I was with a great group of six other girls from the ship and we all had the best time going to the different vineyards! I loved learning all about how to smell a wine, and the proper way to taste it to get the full effect of the flavor. Before long I really could taste (or at least I thought I could) the hint of banana in the Spice Route Pinotage, and how that differed from the taste of the dark merlot! We went to four different vineyards throughout the day, and each was charming and unique. Fairview winery had real goats hanging out in a small tower on the property, and Dieu Donne Vinyards was up on a hill had a picturesque view of the wine lands! The visits were broken up by a cheese tasting, a wonderful lunch, and even a stop for ice cream!

We also had the greatest guide ever! Hantus just wanted to show us everything, and made dinner reservations for the three of us that were staying over night at this great restaurant in the area called Moyo. Then he insisted on driving us there so it would be cheaper, and even made reservations to us to go back to the hostel. I swear the people in Cape Town are some of the friendliest people I have EVER met! The atmosphere of the restaurant was fantastic, it was just like the scene in the real jungle book movie with the big camp ground the English set up at the edge of the jungle, with rows of tents and music and food and firelight, (no body probably knows what I mean by that, but oh, well, that’s what I think of). So after a great meal, we went back to Stellenbosch for the night, and thus ended another fantastic day!