7 wineries at once!

Tuesday 1/5/2016

At 7:30 am I wake up and search online for breakfast options and make myself a coffee. The winery Delheim offers breakfast starting at 9:30 am, and that's where I wanted to go anyway. We leave at 9:00 am and stop at the tourist information center in Stellenbosch to schedule a wine tour for 2:00 pm. We arrive at Delheim shortly before 10:00 am.

The drive is amazing, through a long avenue, along vineyards, until you reach a height and have a pretty far view. Supposedly you can see Table Mountain from there, but we can't recognize it. But the atmosphere is nice, a small but fine menu offers delicious things, and the garden around us is breathtakingly beautiful up here.

Delheim

After a short purchase of a few bottles of wine, we are back in the car at 11:00 am and head towards the winery Rust en Vrede. A very nice, old house that unfortunately cannot be visited because the owners live there. However, the owner appears and chats briefly with us. Wine has been produced here for almost 350 years.

Rust en Vrede

As in every winery, there is also a garden restaurant here, which is also well attended.

We drive back to the main road and now head to Blauwklippen Winery. Several beautiful old houses with Cape Dutch gables are on the premises, beautiful view, and inside next to the shop there is also a salon for gin and brandy.

Blauwklippen

At the end of Annandale Road, which we use when leaving, there are strawberry fields where poor pigs pick strawberries bent over in the scorching midday heat. It's 32 degrees Celsius.

After the first refueling for just under 400 Rand for 32 liters, we return to our cottage around 1:30 pm, where we are supposed to be picked up by the minibus for the wine tour at 2:00 pm.

The mini-bus arrives at 2:15 pm, and besides us, there is only Michele, a tourist from Italy, on the tour. The first stop is the winery Tokara. Modern, wide view - three wines. The first one tastes the best, the most expensive one not so good. But what did we have anyway? I actually forgot that right away. In Stellenbosch, there are 157 wineries.

Approximately 3,600 bottles of wine are produced per hectare of vineyard.

We continue to the winery Thelema, where the friendly lady at the counter speaks excellent German (quote: "I thought German was easier than math, but it wasn't at all!"). Here we have a free choice of the wines listed on a multi-page menu. One of the red wines is called The Mint. It grows next to eucalyptus bushes, and the wind blows over these leaves onto the grapes. The grapes absorb this flavor during the pressing process. Hence the name of the wine.

I don't like Riesling or Chardonnay.

The winery Thelema is very modern and also located in a beautiful area.

'I thought German was easier than math'

I start a conversation with Alto, our guide, and ask him about the average income. Approximately 5,000-6,000 Rand for black people (1,000 Rand is about 60 EUR), while white people earn about double that. So much for there no longer being apartheid...

Among people under 30, the unemployment rate is around 50%, while the national rate is around 30%.

We continue to Delaire Graff Estate, a winery founded by a Swiss/German couple who also trade in diamonds. The estate is extremely luxurious, has an incredibly beautiful postcard view of vineyards and slopes/mountains.

View from Delaire Graff Estate

Here we don't taste any more wines, but only explore the premises, enjoy the view, and then we go to Lazerot - the last winery of the day. There are two whites and three reds at one table. We bought wine chocolate, which tastes fantastic with the wines. However, I have to give up - I can't drink any more wine.

Shortly before 6:00 pm, Alto drops off our Italian friend Michele at the train station. He takes the train to Cape Town, which takes about 90 minutes for the 60 km.

Alto drops us off in downtown because we need a solid base. At Wijnhuis, there is room, and I order Springbok fillets for 250 Rand and enjoy this sheer, tender meat! And of course - a Delheim Pinotage rosé.