Location: Stellenbosch.
Wine flies is the tour company that do Wine tours around Stellenbosch. If you are in Cape Town and are looking for a wine tour then these are your guys! Legend was our guide, yes that is really his name. He was wonderful.
They pick you up at the hostel/hotel you are staying at in the morning and drive you to the first winery, Villiera. Here we do a brief history of wine and see the moving parts behind a wine farm, the full story from start to finish. The entire process for white and red wine. Legend gave it in such a relaxed way, made sure we are listening and taking it in. Even through we were definitely all waiting for the wine.
The tasting consists of 2 Sparkling, 3 white wines and 1 red, there was biltong and kudu sausage to eat as well. The wines were enjoyable and good to start the day with. We had a chenin blanc from a steel barrel and one from and oak barrel – the different was outstanding! The winery was nice and big, so we could sit out side and relax in the shade.
There was not too much pressure but we have time constraints as we needed to move onto the next place. This was definitely one of your more boutiquey wine farms. Cheese Pairing at Mitres Edge. 1 white and 4 reds. The pairings here were really surprising, a cows milk feta with white wine. Blue camembert with a red. For someone who doesn’t normally enjoy red wine, this was my most surprising tasting of the day. The tasting room was in the cellar which was lovely, it was a family wine place as well making it all the more special to have the wine maker with us to explain every element of the wine.
Lunch and the third stop was Middlevlei, lunch was a Braai which was lovely. Sausages and chicken which a whole range of salads and sides. It was delicious and I enjoyed the wine so much I bought two bottles of it. It was a chilled lunch, Legend making sure that our glasses were topped up with different wines every time they were empty.
After lunch we headed into the cellar, which was actually a separate building. We saw the old concrete barrels they used to keep the wine in. And we went into one of the barrel rooms where we could take wine out of the barrel itself! It was great. The wine they had deemed was not quite good enjoy to be sold and so needed longer in the barrel. The guide explained putting fake oak sticks and logs into the barrels when the barrels were older in order to increase the oakiness in the barrels.
By now we are well plied with wine, but still enjoying ourselves, nothing too rowdy. We head to Lovane – this is the only place you can buy their wine, they do not sell in anywhere else. This is where we had the wine and chocolate pairing – again something I didn’t quite understand to begin with.
Mostly red wines and even a port style wine was well! Some of the chocolates were well paired others were more debatable. It was interesting to understand their process and the story behind their wines. This was a boutique little place. Such a lovely stop on this tour, beautiful images to be taken with the mountains in the background.
Heading to our next stop we had a quiz to see how much we had learnt. Luckily I was in the front so I didn’t get involved, just laughing at the answers and being the DJ – naturally. The two teams tied so we all shared a small bottle of wine for the whole bus.
Our 5th stop was Vergenoegt, home of the runner duck wine. They actually have a duck parade here three times a day to teach the ducks to walk together. They use them during the growing season to keep the bugs away from the grapes- reduces the use of pesticides. The geese walk amongst them to keep them in line and stop other animals or vermin getting into the group.
The wines – lets move on – the wines where we had a white, rose and a few reds. I enjoyed the wines, but the rose and red were not quite to my taste. I preferred previous ones. I did however buy a bottle of the white wine to share with my family.
We did visit one final winery Peter Falke, this was extra and so we had to pay for it. It was R65 for 8 wines, only one or two white. By this point we had had so much wine. We were happy just chilling out in the gardens chatting to one another watching the sun go down. I don’t think we were paying too much attention to the wines, more to the conversation and if we enjoyed the wines or not.
We had a party bus on the way back, some golden oldies and good dance tunes – songs you can dance along to. All in all it was a lovely day, I really enjoyed myself and that is not the wine talking. I would highly recommend these guys and this guide. I would take another one of these tours again without hesitation.
Until next time
Helpful Haz 