Wine Tasting in South Africa

     We struggled to get out of bed as the sun came up in the morning before our wine tasting adventure in Capetown South Africa.  The day was already starting to feel hot.  After a leisurely cappuccino on the deck of our hotel over looking Table Mountain, we packed our car with water and snacks and made the journey to SA's premier wine country Stellenbosch.  We had a date with an acquaintance who worked at Avontuur in the Helderberg wine region who got us oriented and gave us a list of a few of her favorite wineries.

      Avontuur was actually quite an interesting winery doubling as a race horse stable and wine farm (we love that South Africans call wineries wine farms).  They name all of their wines after famous racing horses.  Their current stallion named Var held the record as the fastest horse for a few years last decade.  They made a very tasty Pinot Noir called Manelli which we are excited to drink this weekend.  Avontuur's racehorses are worth so much money they have a horse graveyard you can walk through.  They just started harvest 2 weeks ago with Chardonnay for their sparkling wine.  The winemaker and his crew had all the familiar signs of stress from harvest.
      After Avontuur we headed up the mountain to Uva Mira, Ernie Els and Peter Falke.  The Helderberg's wine farms have absolutely spectacular views from their tasting rooms, great reds and very friendly staff.  From Uva Mira you can see the ocean on one side, the mountains on the other and fields of vines in between.  It's breathtaking.  If you want to check out some modern South African art meets bottle-service-in-Miami, Peter Falke's wine farm is quite a gem and has an extremely knowledgeable staff.  They also make great wines.
      After Helderberg we headed for Franschhoek.  The drive there was again superb.  Our first stop was Solm Delta.  There tasting room is also a museum providing an educational, cool and unique environment.  The workers of this farm are share holders in the business which added an exciting flavor to the energy of the place.  We bought a bottle of their Syrah-Marsanne-Viognier Rhone blend and a bottle of sparkling Shiraz.  The Shiraz tasted like sparkling grape soda.  Our last stop was Graham Beck.  By far the biggest winery we tasted at, we had the opportunity to run through their entire profile.  We had to pass a blind taste test so they believed we were winemakers.  We identified the Sauvignon Blanc and Syrah with flying colors.  Graham Beck was luckily close to the town of Franschhoek so we dined in a local restaurant having a leisurely two and half hour meal.  We drove back to Capetown during sunset.  With 20 bottles of wine in our trunk we are planning on a 4 day cooking vacation in a rented house 6 hours from Capetown.  We are all going to prepare meals paired with the wines we bought in the wine country.  We're very excited and have some great ideas.