We're going to Cape Town next month, and are spending one day going out to the Winelands. There are 4 of us, and none of us can tell the difference between good and great wine, so we have no need or desire to go to the wineries that necessarily have the best wines.

What we are more interested in are ones that have particularly nice grounds, or views, or gorgeous drives to get to them - basically everything but the wine. Obviously, "ties" go to those with the best tasting wines.

For example, one of my co-workers recommended Kanonkop Wine Estate - it was in fact the only winery that stood out to him, and it wasn't because of the wine.

Also, several people have been to the Spier winery for the Cheetah encounter - which we may do as well - but have heard that the wine there is good but not great.

So if anyone else has recommendations for interesting, quirky, gorgeous, etc. wineries - please post them! Also, if there are recommended routes (e.g. driving up from the coast to Franshoeck), I'd appreciate that input as well. We're intending to stay around Paarl, Stellenbosch, and Franshoeck but that's not set in stone.

Thanks in advance.

Anything?

Fairview - home of Goats do Roam in Paarl is fun, and the wine is good.

Delheim is an attractive spot and used to be good for an outdoor lunch.

Hamilton Russell just north of Hermanus is worth a look.

We love Vergelen http://www.webdining.co.za/vergelegen/home.htm
Picnic under the camphor trees that are hundreds of years old. Beautiful house, wonderful grounds, and the wine is good. It's south of Stellenbosch, in the eastern part of Somerset West.

Just next door, and once part of the same estate is Lourensford http://www.lourensford.com/
Also lovely, great gardens, decent restaurant. When we are at the Cape we go there to get freshly roasted coffee beans, and then have lunch, either at the restaurant, or picnic by the tasting room. Surrounded by flowers, the Hottentot mountains in the background, quite heavenly.

Mistadobalina,

If you are looking for the factors that make the Cape winefarms special other than wine then I would make the following suggestions to you:

Firstly forget about visiting Kanonkop. It is nothing other than a winefarm that make very special red wines. Other than for the two wonderful HUGE dogs on the farm there is nothing extraordinary about the farm.

Where I would suggest you visit would be as follows:

Firstly I second Carlux with the suggestion of visiting Vergelegen. It is a very special place with wonderful gardens and amazing 300 year old camphor trees.

Visit Seidelberg wine farm. The views are incredible and the glass blowing factory will literally blow your mind. Good restaurant on the farm too. www.seidelberg.co.za

Ernie Els is a fabulous farm to visit when it comes to views and décor. Money just did not have a role to play when Mr.Els built his farm. http://www.ernieels.co.za/ernieelswines/home.htm

Guardian Peak is a farm adjacent to Ernie Els and is also owned by the golfer. Stop at this venue for a drink stop or possibly lunch. The view from the patio of the restaurant is to die for. http://www.guardianpeak.com/about.htm

While in the region or Ernie Els I would pay a visit to Waterford wine farm. The setting is absolutely fabulous and even though you might not be wine fundis the wine/chocolate tasting experience that you can enjoy on this farm is a wonderful experience. http://www.waterfordwines.com/

While in Stellenbosch it really is worth visiting Muratie wine estate. This is still one of the old farms of South Africa which has been preserved in it close to original state. The port is excellent and if you like sweetish wines enjoy the wine called Amber if they have them in stock. The difference about this farm relative to others is its old time feel with cobwebs thrown in too. http://www.muratie.co.za/

If you are in the winelands region on a Saturday morning spend three hours with Achim von Arnim while he does his once a weekly wine tour on his farm Haute Cabriere. You will NEVER forget this experience. It is totally unique and will stay with you for many years. Fair warning you HAVE to book this experience or you wont get onto the tour as it is HUGELY POPULAR amongst visitors and locals. DON’T MISS THIS EXPERINCE if you are in the Franschhoek area on a Saturday http://www.wine.co.za/Directory/Attr...RODUCERID=1060

If you have an interest n history and archaeology a visit to Solms Delta is an absolute must. The owner of this farm, Mark Solms, has done an enormous amount of work to show the heritage of the original owners of farms in the regions inclusive of those who used to work on the farms. He has established what I rate as being a museum on the farm that has no equivalent in the Cape Town region relative to the above subject. To top this there are interesting wines are the farm that certainly are different. It also is a great idea to have a picnic lunch on this farm as they arrange a gorgeous spot for you to enjoy this meal outing. http://www.solms-delta.co.za/index.html

Mistadobalina, if you ask me the above is certainly sort of off the winetasting part of the Winelands route and there should be enough to keep you very occupied in two days of Cape Winelands travelling.

Hope you enjoy our city and the winelands to the full.

Very proudly part of the wonderful nation of South Africa

Selwyn

Thanks for replying, my last experience was 8 years ago and so bound to be out of date. I do remember Muratie as being very good though. And I love the Guardian Peak wines. Can you visit Niels Verburg?

My personal favorite in Stellenbosch is Bilton, and that's because they make fantastic red wine.

Fairview is a fun place to visit. You get to see some goats and try some excellent cheese in addition to wine tasting (and they have some very nice wines).

napamatt,

I am sure you mean Neil Ellis. If so yes the farm is open to the public and is a wonderfully scenic place to visit. Thats another one for you to look at Mistadobalina.

Very proudly part of the wonderful nation of South Africa

hi, mista,

we didn't have enough time to do much by way of winetours unfortunately, when we were in sA, but you might find teh map we had useful as it shows al lteh wineries.

it is the "sunbird touring map of western cape" and I got it throguh amazon.

we did spend sunday morning at spier, and quite enjoyed it. [It's next on my trip report, if you click on my name], and as we can get the wine here in our local supermarket [in cornwall] we were keen to try it in situ.

of course selwyn's recommendations will be good; you might also like to look at the rough guide to cape town and the garden route, which also has some recommendations, and opening times.

I'm sure you'll have a wonderful time - we certainly did.

regards, ann

This is great stuff - thank you so much.

For a single day - leaving from the V&A Waterfront in CT - roughly how many wineries could I expect to hit? 5 or 6? 8-10? We figure to eat lunch somewhere in the wine country, and also do the cheetah interaction, but other than that we plan to drive around and hit the wineries.

Thanks again.

mistadobalina,

4-5 winefarms + lunch per day are possible but then you should plan all correctly. In this regard I would suggest that on one day you spend your time in the Stellenbosch region while on the second day you should visit the Paarl (Seidelberg) and Franschoek region. If you include Haute Cabriere in your journey to Franschoek, that is if you can make it to the farm on a Saturday, I think you will only make it to 3 farms on the day but going to Haute Cabriere is definitely worth it so try to take this option. Also remember that it is NOT a good idea to visit the Winelands on a Sunday as more than 90% of the winefarms close down for the day.

Hope this helps and more important heres hoping that you enjoy the Cae Winelands.

Very proudly part of the wonderful nation of South Africa

Alas, we have only one day, and it is a Thursday, for what it's worth. 4 to 5 - okay, at least now I know what I have to choose from.

Thanks again.

Before we went to the winelands last December, a contact here in the U.S. who works with the South African Wine Council gave us these suggestions:
ESTATES WITH OUTSTANDING MANOR HOUSES OF HISTORIC INTEREST Vergelegen www.Vergelegen.co.za Somerset West Boschendal (near Franschhoek) www.boschendal.com Franschhoek Rustenberg (www.rustenberg.co.za) Stellenbosch

LEADING PRODUCERS:
Waterford Wine Estate (www.waterfordwines.com) Stellenbosch area
Boekenhoutskloof (www.boekenhoutskloof.co.za) Franschhoek
Warwick Estate/ Vilafonte (Warwick is ouside of Stellenbosch and the managing director is involved in the new winery Vilafonte that is co-owned by a renowned American winemaker, Zelama Long.
www.vilafonte.com

VERY GOOD WINES WITH OLIVE OIL AND CHEESE MAKING

The Wines of Charles Back: Fairview Estate (also has an excellent artisan goat cheese making facility) Morgenster (next door to Vergelegen) besides their very nice wine, they make excellent oil from their own olives. www.morgenster.co.za

He also advised us not to try to do more than two wineries a day--which we didn't. We were lucky enough to have private tours arranged for us, but with or without them, we had a wonderful time at the ones we selected: Boschendale, Fairview Estate--we had the picnic lunch on the beautiful grounds at Boschendale and lunch in the fun dining room at Fairview. We decided not to do more than that, but would have liked to go to Vergelen had we had more time.

Another friend who lives in Mossel Bay recommended Rust-en-vrede, Ernie Els, Alto--and Rickety Bridge, Stony Brook--which our wine council contact agreed were all quite fine, but would require more time to get to.

I'm sure you'll have a terrific time whichever you choose. Enjoy!

Selwyn

No Niels Verburg, a friend bought me some of his Shiraz, of which he makes about 400 cases - terrific stuff.

Napamatt,
There are contact details for Niels on the web. He sometimes hosts people for teambuilding events. There are no seriously big gates to the property but an appointment would be in order.

Thanks - the wine is terrific and so would love to get in there. We have a planned tour, but the organizer is very happy to get customer preferences to work with, so we'll see what he can do.

Okay, I think we have a rough plan - let me know how this sounds.

*Take N2 out of Cape Town to Somerset West
*Vergelegen & Morgenster
*Drive up the the 44 towards Stellenbosch
*Spier
*Lunch at Spier (Cape Malay/Indonesian food)
*Drive up the 44 towards Paarl
*Seidelberg
*Drive to Franschhoek for dinner at Le Bon Vivant

We will have a driver, fortunately, so we won't need to worry about either intake or driving in the dark after dinner.

Does this look do-able?

You should be able to do this. And you've picked some great places. Hopefully you can pet the Cheetah at Spier. Can't speak for the wine...Check out some pics at http://www.picasaweb.google.com/okapigirl/spier

Mistabdobalina,

Your trip is definitely do-able and a good plan overall. One comment is start driving from Cape Town at no later than 08h30.

Enjoy Cape Town to the full and I will be thinking of you when you are savouring the wonderful food at Les Bon Vivant.

Very proudly part of the wonderful nation of South Africa

When this first posted I was about to leap in with a suggestion of Delaire (www.delairewinery.co.za) for its great view across the vineyards and valley. A favourite of mine. It's near the top of the Helshoogte Pass. But I see that sadly it's closed to the public until the end of March or "until further notice due to renovations".

I see that there's a link (under "Diary&quot to "Wine Tours".