Second day of our wine trip. We started out in Franschhoek, strolling through the galleries where Sven bought some beautiful paintings, painted on old editions of the Cape Times.

Then on to our first real wine tasting, at Blaauwklippen Vineyards. We sampled five different wines each, from a delicious Cabernet Sauvignon to a heavy Syrah.

The best though were their white and red Zinfandels, my favourite grape. I discovered this wine in California, where it is really popular, so I was thrilled to find a winery that specialized in Zinfandel.

Honestly, with the heat, we were pretty drunk quickly. We ate something alongside, but of course I just can’t spit out the wine. What a waste!

 

After a little break, we drove on to Vergelegen Estate, our second stop.

The Estate was founded  in 1700 by an early Governor of the Cape. It was a vineyard from 1798 on, when the Theunissen family planted extensive vineyards.

Unfortunately, an infestation by a louse in the late nineteenth century wiped out most of their grape production.

Only in 1992 the wine production was taken up again, and quickly earned a reputation as one of South Africa’s best vineyards.

We took a little walk under the vast Camphor laurels that were planted by Willem van der Stel in about 1705 and are now a protected provincial heritage site.

It’s summer season and South Africa is full of tourists, international and South African. So the restaurant was booked out, and even all the picnic baskets were sold out.

So we opted for a cheese plate and simply had two glasses of Sauvignon blanc and Chardonnay, instead of another full-on sampling. You have to know when to stop.

We came back to Cape Town in the late afternoon, happy but wiped out by the heat, the driving and the alcohol… That’s the life!