Wine Tasting for One

One of the disadvantages of touring the Cape Town area while pregnant is that I haven't been able to enjoy the wine country and tastings which is one of the major activities to take part around Cape Town. However, the landscape of the wineries is really breathtaking so I at least got to enjoy that while Alan became an official taster.







We went to a few wineries in Stellenbosch and Franschhoek - two nearby areas outside of Cape Town. Both have small towns to explore with boutiques, craft shops, and restaurants. Stellenbosch is the more famous town and unimpressive to the naked eye. Franschhoek, on the other hand, is much smaller and a quaint little town, worth a day's visit. Alan tells me one of the major differences between this wine country and Napa Valley is that many of the South African wineries have gourmet restaurants attached to them whereas Napa Valley wineries are there just for the wine. We went to one of these winery/restaurant combo; it was good but not outstanding, although Alan had Zebra for dinner and has added to his list of game meats consumed.

The next day we explored a famous winery (internationally known) called Spier which we figured would be busy but we had no idea it would be the Disney World of wineries. It was a maze of venues for eating, drinking, and picnicing, with a hotel, amphitheater and conference center. We had to park 10 minutes away from the wine tasting because there were so many people and cars. It makes you wonder how good the wine can be if the business caters to the accdiental tourist instead of just wine. Needless to say, Alan did a quick tasting and we were out of there.