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The wine routes are very well developed and, quite honestly, you could spend
weeks ? or even months ? roaming around happily and never get to the end of it.
Well, it sounds great but very few people have that kind of time so you should
really choose one and then spend a day or two happily exploring. If you really
are a wine fundi, you could visit a number of them. They are listed below in a
circular route, which is far too long for anyone to do, but it gives you an idea
of the kind of routing you can do. You?d probably be wise to leave out at least
half of them. But which half? Ah, that?s the tough one. Best you get a good wine
book, such as John Platter?s South African Wine Guide.
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| Day 1 |
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Start in Cape Town and head up the N7 to Malmesbury in the Swartland. This is
one of the less fashionable winemaking districts but Capetonians in the know
treasure it for excellent value for money wines of a good quality. There are
about a dozen wineries in this region.
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| Day 2 |
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Head towards the coast and visit some of a mere handful of new, quite
innovative, wineries near Darling.
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| Day 3 |
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Start in Cape Town and head up the N7 to Malmesbury in the Swartland. This is
one of the less fashionable winemaking districts but Capetonians in the know
treasure it for excellent value for money wines of a good quality. There are
about a dozen wineries in this region.
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| Day 4 |
Head towards the coast and visit some of a mere handful
of new, quite innovative, wineries near Darling.
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| Day 5 |
Head back inland to Citrusdal. You could visit a few
wineries here but the Craig Royston Winery is your best bet. It?s not a
vineyard, it?s an old store which has been turned into a wine tasting and sales
centre for the whole Olifants River region, which tends to concentrate on
richer, fortified wines, but not exclusively. There are less than ten wineries
in this spread out region.
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| Day 6 |
Then head off to Upington and explore the Orange River
region which, as well as producing some great fortified wines, also grows
wonderful export grapes and dates. There are only a handful of wineries
here.
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| Day 7 |
Drive to Beaufort West and spend the night there. Any
wine tasting here will have to be in the local pub. Who knows what you might
discover, though.
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| Day 8 |
Drive through Meiringspoort to de Rust, which is part
of the Little Karoo region, and where you can try some lovely characterful reds,
some fortified wines and a few others. Look out for the ridiculously packaged
?Tickled Pink?, a non-serious sparkling wine. There are about a dozen cellars
spread out over this large area.
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| Day 9 |
Go through Oudtshoorn to Calitzdorp, where you will
find a great selection of port.
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| Day 10 |
Continue through Barrydale and Montagu, which are still
part of the Little Karoo region.
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| Day 11 |
Then tour some of the wineries in the Robertson area,
and consider an optional detour to McGregor, which is a lovely little town with
one small winery. This is starting to get into classic wine country, and this
region has about 30 cellars.
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| Day 12 |
Head across to the N2 and then to Caledon, from where
you?ll travel through the Hemel & Aarde (Heaven and Earth) Valley to
Hermanus. The small number of vineyards here make up the Walker Bay region and
are the most southerly in Africa. Try the southern right pinotage ? there can?t
be too many wines named after a whale.
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| Day 13 |
Head back to the N2 via Botriver, where you should pop
in to Beaumont and try their awesome red blends.
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| Day 14 |
Head back across the N2 through Villiersdorp and
Franschhoek, and into the more traditional wine growing regions. Franschhoek is
named for the many French Huguenots who settled here when escaping persecution
in France, and who pretty much founded our wine industry. It?s a lovely town
with about 20 great wineries.
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| Day 15 |
And then on to Paarl, which is also one of the older
wine growing areas. Here you will find excellent Methode Cap Classique sparkling
wines and a whole range of excellent stuff on offer. This is in the heart of
wine country and there are about 50 cellars in this region. Many wineries here
also make cheese, or grow olives.
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| Day 16 |
Head west towards Worcester, which has a good selection
of wineries, and then through the Hex River Mountains to Tulbagh which is one of
the lesser known regions with only about ten or so cellars, although it is quite
a historical wine growing area.
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| Day 17 |
If you headed back towards the Swartland, you would go
through Wellington, which is tucked away in a small valley. Even though there
are only a dozen of so cellars, you couldn?t see them all in a day.
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| Day 18 |
¨ Head back to the centre of gravity of the winelands.
Stellenbosch, with almost a hundred wineries, would keep you going for weeks if
you tried to see them all.
¨ Close by is the town of Somerset West, which is
the centre of the Helderberg region. Once the ugly stepsister to Stellenbosch,
this region is now producing some excellent wines from its 20-odd
vineyards.
¨ From there you could head back to Cape Town and the Constantia
winelands. This is the oldest wine growing area in the country, and there are
only a handful of surviving cellars ? but they are most definitely worth
visiting.
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