52 Best Sights in The Western Cape and Winelands, South Africa

Although the farm was established as early as 1693, current owners Johnny and Ginny Grieve have done some serious reorganizing in the vineyards and built a state-of-the-art cellar that's dug into a dry riverbed. Avondale started producing wines in 1999, making it one of the newer kids on the block. The winery hit the ground running, and its wines win one award after another. The reds are especially good, and the intense Paarl summers result in full-bodied grapes that deliver knockout flavors. Great care is taken to maintain top-quality soil, and no pesticides or herbicides are used. If you're interested in the wine-making process, book an Eco Wine Safari, a 2½ hour tour that starts with a glass of bubbly, takes a tractor ride into the vineyards (with tastings among the vines) and ends in the state-of-the-art gravity-flow cellar, constructed three stories underground. There are also gentle hikes and a bike track, or if you're looking for something less energetic, book a table at the fabulous Faber restaurant.

With a history that dates back three centuries, this lovely estate is one of the Cape's major attractions. Cradled between the Simonsberg and Groot Drakenstein mountains at the base of Helshoogte Pass, Boschendal runs one of the most pleasant wine tastings in the region: on warm days you sit outside at wrought-iron tables under a spreading oak. In 1981, Boschendal was the first to pioneer a Blanc de Noir, a pink wine made in a white-wine style from black grapes. The Boschendal Blanc de Noir remains one of the best-selling wines of this style. The Werf Restaurant serves excellent country-style cuisine, and picnic baskets are available to enjoy on the lawns. Hour-long vineyard tours and cellar tours are available, as well as a range of wine and food pairings; be sure to book ahead. You can also take a horse ride through the vines, and there's a jungle gym and hands-on farm activities for kids.

The Cederberg mountain range might be the last place you'd expect to find a vineyard, but that's what makes Cederberg Private Cellar so unusual. When old man Nieuwoudt, known to everyone as "Oom Pollie," planted the first vines in 1973, all his sheep-farming neighbors thought he had gone mad. Today, however, winemaker David Nieuwoudt and his small team are laughing all the way to the awards ceremonies. At an altitude of around 3,300 feet, this is the highest vineyard in the Western Cape, and consequently is almost completely disease-free.  All the wines are excellent; in fact, you'll struggle to see the labels for all the wine accolades pasted on the bottles. Set aside at least an hour to sip through the wines in the garden, with views of the surrounding mountains.

Who needs French champagne when you have top-class South African Méthode Cap Classique at very affordable prices? Graham Beck Wines, on the road between Worcester and Robertson, produces some very sophisticated wines. Cellarmaster Pieter Ferreira is known as Mr. Bubbles for his wonderful sparkling wines, which are so popular that the farm no longer produces any still wines. The iconic Cap Classique flagship, Cuvée Clive, is the undisputed favorite in the range. As well as a standard tasting, you can try bubbly paired with gourmet popcorn and most unusually, olive oil.

At the end of Stellenbosch Kloof Road, this meticulous winery, flanked by the Bottelary hills, overlooks rolling vineyards and jagged mountains. Since the first vintage in 1993, the winery has established a formidable reputation. The Sauvignon Blanc makes for good summer drinking; the dense but fruity Nine Yards Chardonnay is extremely popular and has regulars stocking up on cases at a time. Another wine to try is the Cobblers Hill Bordeaux blend. The wine estate has an excellent restaurant, as well as a bakery where you can enjoy breakfast or a light lunch. Cellar tours are available by appointment; book at least a day ahead.

This is one of the oldest farms in the area, established in 1692 on the banks of the Eerste River. The farm produces excellent wines, which go from strength to strength. The flagships are the Frans K. Smit red and white blends, named after the winemaker. Also try the 21 Gables Chenin Blanc and Pinotage—both excellent. The farm's owners value biodiversity and arts and culture: their enormous art collection is displayed across the farm's public spaces, and their farm-grown produce is used in the restaurants. You can order a picnic and enjoy it on the banks of the river, or explore the farm on foot, by bike, or on a Segway tour. In addition to tastings, there is a chocolate and wine pairing and a hands-on blending experience. If you're traveling with the kids, visit Eagle Encounters, an on-site rehabilitation center for raptors. And if you just can't drag them away, there is a delightful hotel on-site complete with a kids' club, so you can sip while they play.

Perched on the crest of the Helshoogte Pass between Stellenbosch and Franschhoek, Tokara is the brainchild of banker G. T. Ferreira. For a city slicker with lots of money, he's done everything right and has scooped up awards. The Chardonnay was once voted one of the top 10 wines from around the world at the Chardonnay-du-Monde Awards. The flagship red, a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Petit Verdot, and Malbec, is well worth taking home. Be on the lookout for the farm's limited-release Pinotage, taken from one block on the foothills of the Simonsberg. Tokara also has farms in the cooler Elgin and Hemel-en-Aarde regions, which means it can produce a stunning white wine blend (Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon) with plenty of complexity. The farm also presses its own premium olive oil, which you can taste and buy. The restaurant is a foodie's delight, and the Delicatessen is a perfect venue for a breakfast or light lunch. Kids love the free-form jungle gym—as good-looking as any contemporary sculpture—and the weaver's nest they can climb into that hangs in a huge oak.

Established in 1700 by Willem Adriaan van der Stel, who succeeded his father as governor of the Cape, this traditional thatched Cape Dutch homestead looks like something from a fairy tale. An octagonal walled garden aflame with flowers surrounds it, and huge camphor trees, planted over 300 years ago, stand as gnarled sentinels. The homestead is now a museum, furnished in period style. Other historic buildings include a magnificent library and the old stables, which is now the Stables Restaurant, where you can have breakfast or lunch while looking onto the Hottentots Holland Mountains. You can also purchase a picnic to enjoy on the grounds during the summer months, or grab coffee and cake in the tea room overlooking a magnificent rose garden. 

Vergelegen's flagship wines include Vergelegen V (a full-bodied Cabernet Sauvignon), and Vergelegen GVB Red, a Bordeaux blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Cabernet Franc.  Reservations are recommended for the hour-long wine tours, but no children are allowed. Note that there are also 70 steep stairs leading to the cellar. Apart from award-winning wine, there are 18 themed gardens, including the Camellia Garden of Excellence—a collection of more than 1,000 plants which flower during the winter months (June–August). There's also a lovely children's play area adjacent to the restaurant.

Although the Ratcliffe family no longer runs the farm, the influence of founder Norma Ratcliffe is still evident. The first female winemaker in South Africa, Norma pioneered the way and is immortalized in the estate's popular Cabernet Sauvignon—The First Lady. Trilogy is a stylish and complex red made with Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Merlot. Another great red, the Three Cape Ladies, was named after the indomitable Ratcliffe women, and is a fabulous blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, and Pinotage. The Cabernet Franc is undoubtedly one of the best wines made from this varietal in the Winelands. In summer there are kid-friendly vineyard tours that compare grape varietals to the Big Five animals from the comfort of a safari vehicle. Afterward, enjoy a decadent picnic on the lawn.

Set against the dramatic Drakenstein Mountains and surrounded by vineyards and orchards, Allée Bleue is one of the oldest wine farms in the Cape. This picturesque estate is well known for its fresh and fruity white wines and well-matured, spicy reds. You can taste their award-winning wines on the tree-shaded terrace overlooking the vineyards or by an open fire in the tasting room. Bistro Allée Bleue offers breakfast and light lunches, or in summer you can buy a picnic basket filled with a selection of salads, breads, nibbles, cheeses, and desserts. There's even a kids' picnic menu, along with a jungle gym, trampoline, sand pit, and jumping castle to keep the little ones occupied. The farm also produces a range of fruit including pears, plums, and nectarines.

The red wines here are big, bold, and delicious. Packed with black-currant and tobacco flavors, and with a lingering fruitcake finish, the port (called the Allesverloren Cape Vintage) is an award-winner and perfect for cool winter evenings. Translated from Afrikaans, Allesverloren means "all is lost." The bleak name derives from a story from the early 1700s, when the widow Cloete owned this farm. Legend has it that she left the farm for a few weeks to attend a church gathering in town, and in her absence the resentful tribespeople set her homestead alight. When she came back to a smoldering ruin, she declared, "Allesverloren," and the name stuck. These days though, there's plenty to celebrate and plenty of reasons to visit.

Now in a new, contemporary tasting room in the centre of Franschhoek, Backsberg is still serving up its comprehensive range of accessible red and white wines. Among the wines to look out for are The Patriarch Cabernet Franc and the Smuggled Vines Chardonnay. It also produces six kosher wines that are palatable, including a Chenin Blanc, a Pinotage, and a decent red blend. A fun way to spend an hour is doing one of the various food and wine pairings, including the Circumventing the Cape pairing, which focuses on local dishes. You can also order platters and sandwiches in the tasting room.

You can't miss the old white gates of Beaumont Wines. This is a fabulous family-run winery. It's just sufficiently scruffy to create an atmosphere of age and country charm without actually being untidy. But, charm aside, it's the wine you come here for, and it really is worth the detour. Beaumont produces a range of dependable, notable wines, like their flagship Hope Marguerite, a wooded Chenin Blanc. The deli is open for breakfast and lunch, and there are cottages on-site if you want to stay over.

With only 44 acres under vine, Bouchard Finlayson nevertheless thrills critics and wine lovers year after year. Winemaker Peter Finlayson makes good use of the cool sea breeze and unique terroir of the estate to create some fantastic deep-south wines. They're particularly well known for excellent Pinot Noir. You might wish to lay down a few bottles of the much-lauded Tête de Cuvée Galpin Peak Pinot Noir, a velvety and fruity wine. It's a particularly family-friendly winery, with a kids' juice pairing and plenty of games either to play at your table or on lovely lawns overlooking the valley.

About 17 km (11 miles) up Hemel-en-Aarde Road, Creation Wines is a little off the beaten track but well worth the drive. Like other wineries in this region, it is best known for its excellent Pinot Noir. Try the Art of Pinot Noir, with flavors of cherry and plum and a background earthiness. Open for lunch, the restaurant focuses on seasonal local produce and carefully thought-out wine pairings.

This large producer makes wines under a number of labels. Look out for the Premium range as well as the award-winning Darling Cellars Blanc de Blanc sparkling wine. Other suggestions include the Reserve Bush Vine Sauvignon Blanc, with notes of cut grass, passion fruit, green figs, traces of guava on the nose, and a zingy aftertaste. Don't miss out on the Sweet Darling range, a selection of white, red, and rosé wines made from local grapes. It's all good, drinkable stuff at very affordable prices. In addition to standard tastings, there are two food and wine pairing options and a kids' juice pairing—book ahead for these experiences.

Diemersfontein is best-known for originating what has become one of the most successful styles South Africa has yet created: coffee Pinotage. Pinotage, a South African grape that is a cross between Pinot Noir and Hermitage, can be bitter and is sometimes described as rubbery. Through careful yeast selection and the addition of toasted oak staves during aging, Diemersfontein's Bertus Fourie brought out prominent coffee and chocolate notes in the wine, creating a new and hugely popular style. The estate's other brand, Thokozani, is a Black empowerment project, partly owned by the winery staff. It's a beautiful setting for a tasting, or try the pairing of three wines with three sweet treats.

Tastings here take place in a wonderful little wooden chalet overhanging the dam. You can also partake in a fun blending experience, in which you sample three red wines and then play around until you've found your perfect blend. You then get a bottle to take home, with a custom label you make on-site. The Graze Deli is known for its vetkoek, deep-fried doughy parcels stuffed with a sweet or savory filling. You can also book ahead for the Wine Walk, a three-day, 35-km (22-mile) walk among the region's vineyards. Each day you return to the estate's cottages to spend the night.

A visit to Fairview is a treat for the whole family, including kids and adults who aren't fans of wine. Children get a kick out of seeing peacocks roaming the grounds and goats clambering up a spiral staircase into a goat tower. And those goats aren't just for decoration—Fairview produces a superb line of goat cheeses which come with the wines when you order a tasting. The estate's wines are top-drawer and often surprising. The Fairview Eenzaamheid Shiraz is excellent, as is the La Beryl Blanc. The winery also makes creative use of the farm's many Rhône varieties. Perhaps it's just because the pun was irresistible, but (as claimed by the label) goats are sent into the vineyard to personally select grapes for the Goats-do-Roam, which is indeed like a young Côtes du Rhône (infuriating French winemakers). If you care to linger, you can have a light meal and freshly baked bread at the Goatshed Restaurant.

As you're heading inland to explore the Overberg or the Garden Route, be sure to stop at the impressive Gabriëlskloof, 29 km (18 miles) northeast of Kleinmond. Try the award-winning Shiraz in the garden or in front of a log fire in the tasting room. You can also sample the estate's extra-virgin olive oil, and perhaps purchase some from the deli. The Gabriëlskloof restaurant is a great place to stop for lunch. The menu changes regularly, but the food is always wholesome fare made with fresh local produce.

What comes out of Glen Carlou is rather special. The Quartz Stone Chardonnay is exceptional, and The Collection Red Blend is also remarkable. There's a small art gallery here with rotating exhibitions, as well as an excellent restaurant open for lunch. The menu changes seasonally, but you can look forward to dishes like springbok loin with red wine jus, and chocolate croquettes with tonka bean mousse. There's also a children's menu.

Former dairy farmer Peter Pentz had enough of getting up at 4 am to milk his cows, so together with his son, Nick, he turned instead to grapes at Groote Post Vineyard. The large, environmentally sensitive winery got off to a fantastic start when its maiden 1999 Sauvignon Blanc was judged one of the best in the Cape, and Groote Post has been winning awards ever since. Try the Groote Post Kapokberg Chardonnay and the Inheritance Pinot Noir with notes of cherry and raspberry. The restaurant, Hilda's Kitchen, is an excellent choice for lunch and makes scrumptious picnic baskets filled with local cheeses and cured meats, quiches, and chocolate brownies (order these in advance). Game drives through the unique renosterveld ("rhino vegetation" in Afrikaans) are offered during the summer; expect to see wildebeest, giraffes, and a range of antelope. Advanced bookings are essential.

In a thatch building overlooking a small dam, Hamilton Russell Vineyards produces only two varietals: Chardonnay and the temperamental Pinot Noir. Their wines are regarded as some of the best in the world, regularly winning all manner of accolades and awards.

Built in 1994 on the lower slopes of the Franschhoek Mountains, Haute Cabrière was the brainchild of Achim von Arnim, one of the Cape's most colorful winemakers. To avoid scarring the mountain, the complex, which includes the fine Haute Cabrière restaurant and terrace, hunkers into the hillside. Von Arnim's son, Takuan, has taken over as cellarmaster and continues to produce excellent wines. The Cap Classique sparkling wines (under the Pierre Jordan label) are renowned locally. The fruity, mouth-filling unwooded Pinot Noir is consistently one of the best. Also delicious is the Chardonnay–Pinot Noir blend, an ideal, extremely quaffable wine to enjoy at lunchtime. Cellar tours depart at noon every day.

In the days when the Dutch East India Company stopped in Cape Town en route to the East, a ship would fire a cannon as it entered the harbor to let farmers know provisions were needed. A set of relay cannons on the hilltops would carry the message inland. One such cannon was on this farm, which was then called Kanonkop, Afrikaans for Cannon Hill. The beauty of Kanonkop today is not in its history or its buildings, but in its wine. Paul Sauer, a blend of about 70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Merlot, and 15% Cabernet Franc, rakes in awards both in South Africa and internationally year after year. The Kanonkop Black Label Pinotage is an iconic wine produced in small quantities and sold only from the farm. There are no guided tours, but during harvest you can do a walkabout in the cellar to see the action. An added attraction is the art gallery featuring works from 50 leading South African artists. It's a wonderful selection of the totally traditional to the strikingly modern.

This family-run farm has many awards under its belt and is probably best known for its excellent Shiraz, a ruby red wine with smoky flavors and a chocolaty aftertaste. Also worth taking home is the Merlot, with sweet berry and oak flavors and excellent aging potential. The Eight Feet is a fun but very drinkable testimony to the generations of du Toits who have worked the land: it alludes to the eight grape-stomping feet of the owners' four sons. Don't miss out on Annalene du Toit's olive products. Kloovenburg olive oils are exceptional, and they manufacture olive oil beauty products, too. The wine and olive pairing is a lovely way to spend an hour, either in front of the fire in the cozy tasting room or on warm summer days outside on the rambling terrace.

Short for Ko-operatieve Wijnbouwers Vereniging (Cooperative Winegrowers' Association), KWV regulated and controlled the local wine industry for decades. This is no longer the case, and KWV is seeking to redefine itself as a top wine and spirit producer. KWV produces an enormous selection of excellent wines, and its cellars are some of the largest in the world, covering around 55 acres. Cellar tours here are very popular; among the highlights is the famous Cathedral Cellar, with a barrel-vaulted ceiling and giant vats carved with scenes from wine-making history. The tour ends with a tasting of two white wines, two red wines, a fortified wine, and a brandy. There is a range of fun pairing experiences on offer, too, including bubbly and nougat or brandy and chocolate. As well as award-winning wines, KWV produces some of the finest brandies, with the KWV 12-year-old regularly raking in the accolades.

Dating from 1811, the archetypal Cape Dutch manor house is festooned with flowers and framed by majestic peaks. L'Ormarins is the main estate and part of the Rupert empire, but there are five labels produced by their various farms dotted around the Western Cape. The farm has three state-of-the-art cellars and two tasting rooms. At the Anthonij Rupert Tasting Room, in the manor house, you can try the Cape of Good Hope and Anthonij Rupert wine ranges. You can try the other ranges at the Terra Del Capo Tasting Room. There's an antipasto bar below the tasting room, where you can enjoy tasty tapas. The AR Merlot is exceptional: look out for mulberries, blackberries, and hints of fynbos along with fruitcake and cloves. The TDC Sangiovese is a brilliant, light drinking wine, and the Pinot Grigio is always a pleasure. Visit the estate's Franschhoek Motor Museum, home to more than 80 vintage cars in mint condition.

There's a lot happening at this farm: take a guided tour of the estate's artworks or join a hike along one of the farm's stunning trails. And then there's great wine tasting, food-and-wine pairings, and high tea; the estate's restaurant is considered among the country's best. The farm also has a wonderful collection of Jacob Hendrik Pierneef's art; view his iconic landscapes in the gallery. But don't get too sidetracked—the wine is excellent as well. The Pierneef Collection is the farm's premium range, and the Syrah Viognier blend is being snapped up for its whiffs of dark chocolate, smoked beef, black cherry, and blackberry. The estate's Sauvignon Blanc is also outstanding.

True to its name, this small estate produces just enough wine for the restaurant and to keep its faithful customers happy. Try the full-bodied, barrel-fermented Chardonnay or the Shiraz, which scoops up awards year after year. The Verdict, a Cape-style blend, is also a crowd-pleaser. Taste on the deck, with marvelous views over the valley. Advance bookings are essential.