I love South African wines, so my personal highlight of our Capetown trip were the different wine estates we visited. The Cape Winelands are fantastic. The landscape is impressive and a lot of the wine estates are historical beauties with great mansions and spacious oak-avenues.
We had the chance to do a wine tasting at Neethlingshof, a 300 year-old wine estate in the heart of the Stellenbosch Winelands. We tasted seven different wines: A crisp Sauvignon Blanc, a fruity Chenin Blanc, a sweet Gewürztraminer, a light-bodied Malbec, a medium-bodied Cabernet Sauvignon, a rich Bordeaux Blend and a full Piontage. My favorite was definitely the Pinotage (Owl Post Pinotage) with arresting flavors of raspberries and cherries. We took some bottles of this one home and had them on my birthday recently.
Another picturesque wine estate we visited was Groot Constantia. Constantia is a suburb of Capetown. We went there one late afternoon for a glass of Sauvignon Blanc and a cheese board. They have a very nice terrace where you can sit among beautiful old oak trees. They also have a frequently visited museum. However we preferred to enjoy the wine as well as the view of the beautiful buildings from the 17th Century and of course the vineyards.
A must-do when visiting the Cape Winelands is the picnic at Boschendal, one of the oldest wine farms in Franschhoek. I came there with my family a couple of years ago and we definitely wanted to go again. They have a beautiful picnic area, where they serve ready-packed picnic basket with all sorts of delicacies. We spent a couple of hours eating and drinking wine. Two unlucky fellows had to drive back home.
