Content consumer & newbie here! I’m helping plan a trip to South Africa. What wineries would you all recommend as must see/taste? Key considerations are:
Home Base: Cape Toown
Winery Time: Three-ish Days
We’re familiar with Stellenbosch, but other areas would very much be of interest.
Hamilton Russell in Hemel-en-Aarde, Mullineux in Cape Town, and Sadie Family if you can get an appointment. Have fun!
Hamilton Russell is terrific. At $25-30, they make one of the consistently best chardonnay values in the world. Good pinot noir as well. But I’m not sure how far that is from Cape Town.
As far as good wineries in Stellenbosch, I like Mulderbosch, Rustenberg, Rust en Vrede. I haven’t visited the country, though, so that’s just what I like as a consumer, and I think those are all relatively larger operations who should be well suited to visitors.
plus one for Mullineux.
If you don’t mind tasting in a dusty old barn next to a large fireplace (my favorite type of tasting venue), then please go to Annandale Wines.
For the history of wine in the Cape region I would visit Klein Constantia … http://www.kleinconstantia.com . Their sweet wine Vin de Constance is a nice wine packing lots of history. As a side trip I would visit the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens … Kirstenbosch - SANBI .
I would add Thelema and Tokara to these because they are so beautiful. Both have great restaurants as well. The terrace at the Tokara restaurant is wonderful.
I would also second trying to get into see Eben Sadie (between Paarl and Malmesbury) and Boekenhoutskloof and Chamonix in Franschhoek.
+2 for Mullineux. Hard to find, but worth the search. (The wines that is; I haven’t visited.)
As for visiting, I recommend Stark-Conde for good wines and a terrific tasting setting.
Thanks so much for the recommendations. I’ll start plotting out a map based on hours and location.
Franschhoek all the way. Look into staying a night or to at Clouds (http://cloudsestate.com/) it’s right on the Stellenbosch/Franschhoek border and a fantastic hotel from all fronts.
Bread & Wine restaurant in Franschhoek is fantastic, the braised wildabest I had was killer.
Graham Beck for sparkling and really any of the cap classique (their “brand” for sparkling wine) proudcers are amazing.
Grand Provence in Franschhoek does a great BDX style wine. Many more in the area that are great too, downtown Franschhoek is super quaint and very friendly people.
Ernie Ells (the golfer) has a winery in Stellenbosch that is really good and near the Rust en Verde winery & restaurant (amazing restaurant btw), he is good friends with the guy who owns REV and set him up with his own winery years ago.
Other notes: As background, my mother in law was born in Capteown and we visited a few years back for 3 weeks. She still has family there but even without I found the country to be amazing. We drove everywhere (other side of the road driving, thanks to the Queen…) and the roads were fantastic and well marked. Never felt unsafe once however we were also smart about travel and stayed off the roads late at night in remote areas.
The food in SA is unreal, amazing variety of game meats - Springbuck, Kudu, Ostrich, Lamb, etc. Biltong is their beef jerkey and far superior IMHO. Feel free to PM me for more details, I’ve set up several trips for friends over the years and would go back in a heartbeat if not for the distance from LA. Oh and the Rand is pretty weak too - when we where there it was like 7.5/dollar now it’s 15.5. You will feel like a millionaire everywhere you go…
My experience in SA ~ 2 years ago:
Franschhoek was awful. My wife still asks me, when I plan weekend trips, “are we going to a Franschhoek”? Touristy and absolutely awful wine. Avoid like it has Zika.
We liked Hermanus and it was a great jumping-off point for visiting the Hemel-en-Aarde valley where the Pinot producers are. But be forewarned: much of that Pinot isn’t very good, and the for the producers that are good, they don’t offer great visits unless you arrange in advance. Going to Hamilton Russell without an appointment is like going to a outdoor winebar.
Wines from the valley floor in Stellenbosch generally were not good. The vines are planted in the wrong places.
Relatedly, meals at the top SA restaurants (and we went to many of them!) were almost uniformly disappointing. Everyone is all like “its so cheap!” but I would rather pay twice as much to eat in any decent food city in Europe.
So what did I like - mountain vineyards in Stellenbosch - Thelema and Stark-Conde are great examples, with great wine that is somewhere b/w AFWE and modern. Stark-Conde is mind-bogglingly beautiful and is pretty much a must do for lunch and a tasting. Bot River, which is b/w Franschoek and Hermanus, had some interesting stops - Luddite wines is great, Beaumont has some good wines (particularly chenin). There are some interesting cool climate whites coming from Walker Bay, we didn’t visit them but there’s an excellent wine store in Hermanus that we bought a bunch from and were impressed.
Personally I think you stick to what they do best and it isn’t Pinot Noir… World class Chenin and Syrah, anything off of old planted dry bush vines, stickies, Cab & Semillon to a lesser extent.
De Toren is another one that does a great tour. It is appointment only.
I cannot agree with David in regards to food. I"ve had stupendous meals in SA. A few of them continue to rate in my top 10 meals ever. The Test Kitchen, Colombe and Le Quartier Français are all world class.
Funny, Rob - those were the three restaurants I was thinking of as being unredeemable disasters. we had better meals at restaurants that didn’t pretend to be haute cuisine.
Add another one.
I’ve quite liked Three Foxes – the syrahs, particularly.
Echo many of the replies above.
-Have lunch at La Colombe when visiting Klein Constantia.
-De Toren is great.
-Had a great dinner at Test Kitchen. Definitely a treat.
And to ruffle some feathers- Stick to the white wines in SA, in particular chenin which can be really nice. While I’m painting with broad brush strokes, the reds of all varieties tend to have this weird green streak that has nothing to do with ripeness and I find to be off-putting.
None of those three would be listed in my top ten meals, but I think all three of them would wow anyone esp Colombe in Constantia. Test Kitchen esp you have to be in the mood for food that’s as much to look at as taste but it’s still world class IMHO. All three been pretty spectacular when I’ve been though.
I’d add Aubergine and the Roundhouse in Camps Bay to any list as well of restaurants to visit in the Western Cape. My favorite place has unfortunaly been long gutted of what made it great and is worthless now-a-days. Kennedy’s on Long St. used to be a place with a Michelin starred chef, private dining room with sofa and private balcony where you would have bacchanalian six hour long dinners with cigars & brandy in between courses and leave having spent less than dinner at the Olive Garden. ![[cry.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/8/853b6e76c6e8406be77a6727c2a27ad1672678b3.gif "cry"){kind=small}
Hamilton Russell and Sadie are two of the very best to me.
For eating, spend a long lunch at Delaire Graff winery. They have an incredible restaurant with pretty decent wine. The setting is absolutely stunning. http://www.eatout.co.za/venue/delaire-graff-restaurant/
Mullineux, Mullineux, Mullineux. It is located in the Swartland, an area that is attracting a lot of attention from winemakers and wine lovers. They make terrific Syrah and Chenin as well as great value blends. You have to make an appointment–and this is true for all the Swartland wineries. If you go, be sure to visit the Wine Kollective in the town of Riebeek Kasteel:http://www.thewinekollective.co.za Great selection of local wines at great prices.
I read DavidZ’s report on SA restaurants before my trip and, sadly, found his comments to be accurate. Many dishes ruined by heavy sauces. I do recommend Chefs Warehouse in Cape Town. We had a great lunch there. The food and service were first class.
You will be amazed at how inexpensive food and wine are. Have a great trip.
I would like to hear more about why you sh*t on Franschhoek so hard here. Pretty absurd statement on all fronts…I’ve literally never head one person say something remotely to this fact. Touristy? You been to Napa recently? If anything it’s pretty laid back and borderline rustic in parts.
Food? What are you expecting from a food perspective? I find it helpful to provide context when reviewing something. If you are used to fine dining in the US/Europe than sure it is different, but to say “uniformly disappointing”? Huh???
Again, I find it funny when people are like “oh this sucked, it was terrible” and offer no context. BTW I’ve had terrible experiences at Michelin starred restaurants on occasion but don’t write them off for good…sorry you had such a miserable time…