From the category archives:

tales

Robertson – part I

by Raluca Bauer on 20 March 2011 · 0 comments

We are moving on
After such a marathon in Stellenbosh, it has been about time for us to change the location and  to drive to our next destination: Robertson
Signs on the roads like “Don’t feed the baboons” seemed nonsense to us, but in not even 200 m, the first baboons already stared at us, yet minding their own business.
While driving dusty gravel roads, Oliver has been forced (by me ) to stopp every time I saw a bird, an ostrich, an antelope, or other living creature.  What a beautiful, fascinating landscape !
Our accommodation for 2 nights has been the .....

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Stellenbosch – part III

by Raluca Bauer on 15 March 2011 · 0 comments

Two cats, two dogs and eucalypt trees
You’re probably wondering what’s with my story from today… or what do those four pets having in common with the eucalyptus trees. It’s simple: those are the main characters in the cellar stories – the last ones from Stellenbosch.
The 4th day (an unfortunately the last one) at Stellenbosch was again a busy day. Still a lot of wineries to visit, a lot of vine plants to see and a lot of wine to taste, but most important a lot of people to meet.
Kanonkop
(means “Cannon Hill“)

A grumpy cat, in perfect undercover, is counting the huge .....

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Winestories – part II

February 20, 2011

A tale with ducks ….
It’s always nice if colleagues are behaving like colleagues … The recommendation of our hosts at the Grangehurst estate to visit also Vergenoegd and their “ducks” has been music to our ears. But we didn’t really have a clue about what those guys have been talking – Ducks ???

So, no time to loose: ) We arrived at Vergenoegd round about 4 pm and thanks to a nice sunny day, the lake in front of the winery reflected the blue sky.
I prepared my camera to immortalize the moment. But my lens helped me to .....

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Stellenbosch – part II

February 20, 2011

Grangehurst

The property known as Grangehurst was purchased by winemaker Jeremy Walker’s parents in 1973. A small winery, but for sure a powerful voice in the red wine production. It has been early in the morning when we arrived at the winery but again a very friendly person opened the door and invited us for a wine tasting. We already knew their (still young) ‘98 “Nikela” and I think they have been also happy about our positive feed back concerning this wine. But in general the wines of Grangehurst hold an excellent ageing potential and the wines do have time to .....

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Winestories – part I

February 17, 2011

Every wine/winery needs some stories/legends to be fully appreciated. So, at the end here’s one, we really enjoyed …

After tasting the Warwick wines, we asked them about the meaning of the “lady” from the label and this is what they told us :
“Centuries ago, in old Nürnberg, the noble mistress Kunigunde fell in love with a young and ambitious goldsmith. Although Kunigunde`s wealthy father (a powerful nobleman) did not approve of this pair, it was clear that she only wanted the goldsmith to be her husband. Andsoshe refused many titled and rich suitors who asked for her .....

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Stellenbosch – part 1

February 13, 2011

The accommodation in Stellenbosch has been simply perfect : a cosy place, far away from home but feeling like home : )  and really nice equipped – perfect for our self catering intentions for the next days.
Hans, our host, surprised us from the start: a hand written letter was waiting for us in the room with all  the needed “house rules”. The place is really familiar and the silence of the day is only from time to time broken by the “voice” of a  peafowl …
We started our “wine discovery journey” in Stellenbosch  early in the morning, with a long .....

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Stellenbosch – 40 years of history

February 8, 2011

Stellenbosch is known world-wide as the wine capital of South Africa.
It all started in 1971 when three Stellenbosch visionares and winery owners, namely Frans Malan of Simonsig, Spatz Sperling of Delheim and Niel Joubert of Spier established the wine route in South Africa.
This was the first tourism initiative in the South African wine industry, even though this term didn’t even exist yet.
Today there are 16 wine routes in South Africa. A looong way to go for us and other wine lovers….
From humble beginning, the Stellenbosch Wine Routes now boasts 152 (!) wineries as members, making it the biggest wine route .....

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Tulbagh – the dedicated ones

February 3, 2011

Finally we have Internet connection again Not that I really missed it for a couple of days: sometimes it’s indeed relaxing not to have internet connection, signal for the telephones or even a TV set.
But we decided to run from the wilderness, to be able to taste some more interesting wines from SA.
The next stop was Tulbagh, an island district, traditionally known for sparkling and light white wines.
Although it remained just very few time to taste wines, I cannot describe it in another way than as “the day of the wine lovers”. Really! At both .....

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Paarl – The pearl of the Cape

February 2, 2011

Paarl is the biggest town from Cape Winelands, with commercial structures that haven’t yet affected the “picturesque” of the area. This part of Cape is more known for the Shiraz, but recently also Viognier and Mouvedre are more and more present in warmer areas.
The medium temperature during the winter time is about 14 C and in the summer time 29 C. Considering the fact that Paarl is further afar from the ocean, temperatures can become lower during the winter. It was also interesting to feel the “Cape Doctor” (wind) healing us from the high temperatures of the summer .....

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Cederberg Private cellar

January 31, 2011

There is a simple reason why I am talking about just one winery today: it’s because in this area (Cederberg) there is only one cellar!
And we are talking here about a 1036 meters above the sea-level winery. The highest one in South Africa
The road guided us through big citrus plantations embed in bizarre mountains valleys, where giants played with big rocks and forgot them in strange arrangements. We travelled among wild baboons not minding a bunch of tourists leaving a lot of dust behind them and we disturbed even a cobra (beautiful and fascinating animals). Unlike the baboons, this one .....

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