Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Christmas in Cape Town: Franschhoek Wine Tasting


We spent 3 days in beautiful Franschhoek, South Africa, which is part of the Winelands region so one of our prime activities was wine tasting at the vineyards. The wine making methods are about the same as everywhere and since we’ve visited quite a few wine regions in our travels, we decided to forego most of the winery tours and go straight to the tasting. Our goal was to find 6 bottles to take back to UAE with us (and that wasn’t hard at all).

We headed out on the day after Christmas and finding an open winery was a bit hit or miss. We also got a pretty late start as Brian had some work he had to finish up and I had a massage … yes, I know that sounds unfair to poor Brian but hey, if the cat’s gonna work, the mouse is going to take advantage of the hotel spa. ;) But off we went and made it to 3 wineries before calling it a day. The next day, we got organized a little sooner and visited 3 more wineries and we caught 2 more on Wednesday morning before heading to Cape Town for the remainder of our visit.

The wineries here are similar to Napa Valley or Sonoma in California – very much built to impress and lure in the tourists. We saw tasting rooms with glass walls overlooking some of the most beautiful scenery in the area, we saw lovely fireplaces, gorgeous wood floors and paneling, comfy chairs and of course, delicious wine. Some of these places want you to come in and stay awhile, not just taste a few at the bar and leave. So we did. We took our time, enjoyed the afternoons and savored the views and the wines.

Here are some of our favorite pics from the wineries we visited: Rickety Bridge, Graham Beck, Solms-Delta, Lynx, Stony Brook, Boschendal ...







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