Stellenbosch - scenery and wineries

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Stellenbosch region, Cape Town, South Africa 7600

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Cheetahs, Goats, Wine and Beautiful Scenery

by catsholiday

ashbourne, United Kingdom

April 12, 2010

Best of IgoUgo Stellenbosch, Paarl and the wine landsWe spent a lovely day touring this area.We started from Cape Town at about 9am and drove to Paarl. Our first stop was the monument the Afrikaans language which is on a hill top not from the Paarl Mountain. This ...Read more Stellenbosch, Paarl and the wine lands

We spent a lovely day touring this area.
We started from Cape Town at about 9am and drove to Paarl. Our first stop was the monument the Afrikaans language which is on a hill top not from the Paarl Mountain. This monument seems to be open every day except Christmas Day and New Years day it opens at 8.30 but it stay open longer on the summer months. This is a very interesting monument symbolising the different language influences that make up the Afrikaans language with a cooling fountain and water feature in the middle symbolically bridging the continents of Asia and Africa I believe.
We chose to visit one vineyard near Paarl and one near Stellenbosch. The one near Paarl was the Fairview vineyard which I chose because it had a special tower for its goats to climb up and down via a spiral ramp. It also made and sold goats cheeses which you could taste at the same time as you enjoyed your wine tasting. You paid 25 R per person (11 Rands to the £1 when we were there) and you got to taste 6 wines and about the same number of cheeses.

We particularly enjoyed this vineyard’s wine names as they had ‘Goat Door’, ‘Goats do Roam’ and the one we didn’t really get was ‘Goat Roti ‘but it might be out lack of wine areas or knowledge. We all found it not that nice a wine either but it is all a matter of taste I guess. The wines were quite reasonable prices at about 48R to about 98Rwith a few over the 100rand price tag. The staff were so friendly and very knowledgeable without being snooty. They offered advice if asked but were not in the least pushy. The cheeses were also a reasonable price and very tasty too – they were about 15 R to 25R in price range which I think is fair and then we saw the same Fairview cheeses in the local Spar supermarket and the ones that were 14.50R were 21R in the supermarket.

We then drove on towards Stellenbosch and tried to stop at the Tokara vineyard for lunch as the views are superb over the vineyards but unfortunately they didn’t serve lunch on Mondays so we had to move straight to the other vineyard we had chosen in this area which was Spier. We chose this one as it had a cheetah sanctuary within its facilities.

The Spier Hotel is the first luxury hotel in South Africa to be given a Fair Trade Certificate in Tourism. We didn’t stay at the hotel but we did have the most stupendous buffet lunch here. Within the resort there is a craft market and several large tented places with tables and chairs. We were hungry so we followed our noses in the direction of the cooking smells.

We found an area with tables and chairs and asked if you had to book, not at all was the reply and the lovely gentleman whisked us over to sit at a table under the most enormous tree with decorated metal hanging lights. We had hardly sat down and ordered some drinks when a lovely young African lady came and painted some white decorations on all of our faces. The drinks arrived with some bread and dips and a large salad. When we had demolished this, remember we had our gannet sons with us,when our waiter came to take us over to the buffet.

We had to walk through various other areas before we came to a huge African decorated tent with stalls along the side. Each stall offered different temptations. We could choose from a variety of venison, fish, starch ( this was the rice & potato stall) salads, vegetables, sausages, beef, lamb, chicken – I have honestly never seen such a huge variety and I walked up and down surveying my choices while the male members of the party just stopped at each stall and said ‘yes’ to anything and everything. The boys all went back for seconds but I was stuffed after my first plate load and waited for the dessert run.
The desserts were all on one stall but that didn’t limit the selection which was stupendous and there were lots of typically South African choices which I was very pleased to try. After the meal the boys lay stuffed on the sofas under the tree groaning. We all agreed that the meal would take a lot of beating, to be able to cut through a venison steak with a bread and butter knife just shows how tender it was.

We had planned a second lot of wine tasting at this vineyard but having enjoyed a bottle of their delicious Chardonnay with our enormous meal, none of us felt up to more tastings o we went off in search of the animals.

There were two sections the cheetah sanctuary and the birds of prey. We chose to visit the cheetahs who were all rescued and cheetahs cannot be reintroduced into the wild as they learn to hunt it is not natural within them as it is in lions. All the cheetahs there were hand reared as they were rejected by their mother or something had happened to their mother. You had to pay 25R to enter the area but if you wanted to go into the enclosures and pat the cheetahs then it was 100R to pet an adult and 200R to pet a baby one. All the monies went towards the upkeep of the cheetahs and you could also adopt a cheetah but I suspect that was quite a bit more money and of course the cheetah stayed in the reservation, you didn’t pop it in your bag and take it home with you!
After our wine and huge meal we decided it was time to head homewards. My very generous husband was driving and as he is not really keen on wines has volunteered to resist the temptation and was therefore feeling slightly less sleepy that the rest of us. The drive was lovely meandering through vineyards and gently sloping hills and we had a thoroughly pleasant day experiencing the Stellenbosch and Paarl wine lands.

I am sure there are other lovely vineyards but I would certain y recommend the three we visited. Fairview with its goat tower and wines with clever names, Tokara with the stunning views and Spiers with the food fit for a king and their lovely cheetah sanctuary.
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From journal South African Road Trip

Stellenbosch - scenery and wineries

by SaraP

London, England

January 6, 2004

Best of IgoUgo Another tremendous selling point for the Cape area is the magnificent scenery of the Stellenbosch - the bluey-lavender Simonsberg and Drakenstein mountains shimmering in the distance, covered by acre upon acre of the greenest vines (dotted in the ...Read more Another tremendous selling point for the Cape area is the magnificent scenery of the Stellenbosch - the bluey-lavender Simonsberg and Drakenstein mountains shimmering in the distance, covered by acre upon acre of the greenest vines (dotted in the springtime with flowers, brought in not to add colour for your benefit but to tempt insects to visit the area and then set the grapes). The vista is quite magical.

And as well as feasting your eyes whilst driving through this majestic sweep of colour, there is of course another reason to be here. At any hotel or stop-off place in virtually the whole area you can pick up a wine guide pamphlet for the region, which will include a road map on which are marked three routes around wineries (grouped and categorised red, orange and blue - not for any vinicultural reason that I could see but rather for ease of reaching them by car one after another). There are literally dozens of wineries to choose from - my own selection and recommendation (chosen because they fell to be passed close by each other and I ran out of steam!) is as follows:

- Delheim at PO Box Koelenhof, where you can sit and enjoy a tasting in the "Downstairs" cellar-room - nicely candlelit with pleasant "waiters" who help you to your choice of about 8 wines and advise you. You pay R15 for a modest helping of 5 wines (including an excellent "fizz", sumptuous Chardonnay and to die for Noble Rot). Open daily during summer 9-17 weekdays; 9-15 Sat.; 11-15.30 Sun. (Oct- Apr). It's not so commercial as some and the waiters don't hurry or press you. Only minus point is that you have to buy little sachets of crackers to accompany your wine. The Garden Restaurant is very light and airy, and pleasant for lunch. For a further R15, take a guided tour of the real Cellar which takes you from where the grapes are received and processed to where the end-product is bottled and labelled

- Delaire at 9 Helshoogte Pass Stellenbosch - sit outside under the trees for a slightly smaller range but an extremely good (and well-priced) Shiraz. Afterwards, the Green Door Restaurant looked popular and well set-up. Open Mon-Fri 8.30-16.30; Sat 9.30-12.30 (cellar tours by appointment only).

- The path into Delheim passes Muratie, a small and cute virtually one-room outlet. It's a refreshing change from the slicker places, its seats are weathered leather armchairs and the tables battered oak - the knowledgeable staff are extremely proud of the cobwebs on the stained-glass window, allegedly untouched for 30 years (you can almost believe it). Muratie specializes in red (including a nice Cab. Sauv.) and fortified wine, including a stupendous vintage port. R10 buys a taste of 4 or 5 wines/slugs of port, and seems to be refundable against a purchase.

After all of that, the amazing view is only improved but make sure you have a driver with you!

From journal Cape Town Pt 2 - In and around the Cape

Stellenbosch - scenery and wineries

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Cheetahs, Goats, Wine and Beautiful Scenery

Stellenbosch - scenery and wineries