For our vacation this Christmas, Christina and I went to Stellenbosch, the wine country here in South Africa. We had an incredible time. I must admit, I never cease to be amazed at how beautiful this country is. While a complete rundown here would take a while (both for me to write and you to read), I will lay out some highlights, so that the next time you’re planning a trip to SA, you’ll know exactly what to do:
Best wine tasting experience – Nederburg: It’s actually in Paarl,
which is about 30 minutes from Stellenbosch, but this place was neat. They ask you to sit down at a really
nicely decorated table, where they bring you all of your glasses and
all of your bottles of wine. They’ll give you the order in which they
think the wines should be tasted and will give you some details about
each wine. Awesome.
Best cellar tour – Bergkelder:
Translated it means “cellar in the mountain” and this was absolutely
the coolest. Truthfully, we only did one cellar tour, so we don’t have
anything else to compare it to, but this one was pretty sweet. The
cellar was actually built into a mountain, which you go into after you
tour around the storage facility and watch a pretty informative film
about wine growing. They take you all through the cellar itself and
then do about 10 tastings, with candles providing most of the light.
Good stuff.
Best place for husband points – Boschendal: This place was so gorgeous. We ate a picnic
lunch on the lawn, which a lot of wineries are doing now, but this one
was probably the most classy. You have your own table with an umbrella
set up on the lawn, where a large picnic basket is brought to your
table, with a five-course meal inside, each with its own basket. This was
Christina’s favorite thing on the trip. A definite must.
Best
dinner – Spier: Known for its great wine, but their African restaurant,
Moyo, rivals The Africa Cafe (in the heart of Cape Town), as the best authentic experience for a
meal. It’s huge, with a massive buffet. You’ll get your face painted,
and can go up and eat as much as you want. They even have tables up in
treehouses, which would have been really cool (though climbing the
stairs over and over again might deter a whole bunch of trips to the
buffet!!). But the experience as a whole was one that we’re really glad we didn’t miss.
We also went to a strawberry picking farm, as well as another berry farm, which had, by far, the best jam I’d ever tasted. This particular berry farm also served a small glass of chili chocolate (inspired by the movie “Chocolat”), which was absolutely awesome.
Pictures are to come, and they will just emphasize how stunning this area is. Christina and I want to thank our parents for enabling us to have this experience. Instead of mailing packages this year, our families all helped out with different aspects of this vacation, all coming together to make this trip one we will never forget. Thanks so much!
To see pictures of this stunning area, click on the link below.
http://web.mac.com/christinabowis/iWeb/Site/4%20Captetown%26Stellenbosch.html
Thanks for sharing. I am so glad you can have these lifelong memories. We are proud of you. I spent a day with your folks. It was wonderful seeing them.
Love to you
i am so jealous! when Cassie and I went there- we couldn’t taste the wine! we were good little FYMers and just looked at it…i need to go back. oh and i am glad you liked Spier, we decided we were too broke to go, but it looked super cool. aw i miss it there. ps if you are in the US on june 7th- you can come to my wedding! ( i am sure you have a million other to go to, but i thought i would let you know