February 28 – March 1
Before getting out to wine country, there was still one thing that we hadn’t done in Cape Town yet. We hadn’t been able to get down to Cape of Good Hope. So we woke up super early, packed up all our stuff, left the AirBNB around 5am and headed around the cape. Our goal was to catch Cape of Good Hope for sunrise. Huge success.
This is Cape Point which you can see from Cape of Good Hope 
We also got to see these animals – we weren’t totally sure what kind of bok they were, but since Jeff and Vanessa hadn’t seen many animals and weren’t going to have time for safari, every animal that we saw made me excited for them.
We also got an up close view of some ostriches!
Then off to a really cutesy bakery, Schoon, for some breakfast. It was my first flat white which I had heard a bunch about (and was delicious) and it was Michael’s first… whatever this was…
They called it hot chocolate, but it was really just hot milk with a slab of ganache on the glass. Points for creativity, but Michael was excited and took a huge bite of the ganache up front which meant the rest of it wasn’t that chocolatey. User error.
After Schoon, it was off to Paarl to see the Spice Route. This had been recommended to us by one of Vanessa’s friends and sounded awesome. It was a winery/distillery/brewery/chocolatier/glass blowing/pizzeria/bbq/coffee shop all smooshed into one. Definitely a great way to start wine country. The wine wasn’t the best, but the space was great and we loved popping into the brewery and doing some gin tasting. Gin… not my favorite. But they also had a handful of other grain alcohols that I could definitely get behind.
Also it was fun doing a local beer tasting:
After the Spice Route, we headed to the AirBNB in Franschhoek to drop off our stuff and the car. We had struggled with a decision to hire a driver or go with Ubers and taxis. The driver was expensive, but we weren’t sure how reliable the Uber situation was. After doing some online research, we decided to go with Ubers. I’m not sure I’d call it a mistake, but we struggled finding Ubers in Franschhoek. We basically ended up using a Taxi service for 60% of the time and they sent us the same guy, Michael, every time. I’m sure he was sick of us by the end of our two days in Franschhoek.
Again, I’ll try not to bore you too much, but here are a few notes on the wineries and restaurants we hit up in Franschhoek… more for my memory than anything else.
Day 1
Holden Manz – we sat outside, the wines were very good. Nothing else to say. No pictures.
Boschendal – we had dinner here. They also do wine tastings, but we just incorporated that into our dinner. The food was good, but the best part was sitting outside over the garden and seeing sunset.
Day 2
Moreson – really nice outdoor seating, the wines were great and we bought a bunch of charcuterie there. Apparently they do a 2 day course in how to make charcuterie. Michael was super bummed that we didn’t have time to do that.
I mean – I’m pretty sure I could sell this photo to a magazine or something. Where did that random wind come from to gently blow Vanessa’s hair? 
And then us looking a bit less glamorous:
Here’s Jeffrey holding some of that charcuterie… note how happy he is to have his picture taken:
GlenWood – we really enjoyed sitting outside and their white wines. Their Chardonnay was delicious and their Sauv Blanc/Semillon was also great. The tasting guy was a bit strange and spent a surprising amount of time criticizing straight Sauvignon Blancs.
Haut Espoir – they had an incredible view of elephant mountain and great artwork on their wine. Plus their 2011 Shiraz was one of Michael’s favorites. Here is a picture of the mountain and of the label. See if you can see the elephants in both:
Hint: rear to the left, head to the right.
Stony Brook – Ghost Gum Cabernet was delicious. They have a Chicago distributer. We sat outside with their two dogs and a table of Swedish people were buying and opening some of the crazy expensive stuff, so we got to have a few tastes that were a bit out of our price range.
Le Lude – Like the majority of wine producers, wineries in South Africa cannot call their sparkling wines “Champagne”. They call it MCC which stands for Methode Cap Classique. Le Lude had great MCCs, but there are two important things to point out about this stop.
1. It was only a few blocks from our AirBNB, so we walked, but once we got there, there was another half mile or mile to get to the tasting room of the main road. We weren’t expecting the additional distance and we were trying to get a tasting right before they closed. We were pretty worried we were not going to make it, which resulted in Michael sprinting to the tasting room to ensure we got in. His performance was incredible and we got our tasting.
2. Once in, they did a tasting of their Chardonnay MCC and their Pinot Noir MCC (the rose sparkling). Both were great. Then they poured us a glass of really bad Champagne. Like 7 buck stuff. It was horrible. I think their point was to show that their stuff is better than some Champagne, but the point fell flat. Maybe they could have said something about why they were giving us crap Champagne. Was it the same price range? How did it compare? No clue. It was bad and their stuff was better. It was a strange tasting.
Chef’s Warehouse at Maison – Tapas style dinner – super delicious. I think all of us are happy that there are no pictures. A lot of wine for just one day…