We really wanted to visit a few wineries during our time in Cape Town but we didn’t want to drive (due to all the tasting we planned to do) so we decided to take a full day tour.  There are a lot of options, and we ended up going with Wine Flies, and are so glad that we did.  This tour went to 5 vineyards, included all wines, cheese and chocolate tastings and lunch, and only cost about $55 USD a person.  Our guide, Riaan, was super knowledgeable and laid back.  Really, I cannot say enough great things about this tour!!  

The day started out with pick up at our hotel in Wine Flies custom land rover.  Dan and I got the back.  A fun and bumpy ride.

We kicked off the day (really, it was like 9:30 a.m.) with a tour of Villiera Wines!  Villiera Wines is an awesome vineyard in Stellenbosch that makes some amazing wine!!  We started the tour with a walk around their gorgeous vineyard and then took a tour of their winery.

   

One really cool thing about this vineyard is its involvement in the surrounding communities.  It employs a lot of local workers and provides meals and childcare for their children so that the parents can work without having to pay for child care.  What a great program!

After the tour, on to the tasting in the Wine Sanctuary (a relaxing outdoor terrace)!!  We started with their Cap Classique, or sparking wine.  Then moved on to white, red, and sweet wines.  So much wine for so early in the morning!   Here are some of my favorites:

  And my very favorite – a 2006 Monro.  This wine cost about $13 USD at the vineyard and compares to some $40-$60 California cabernet.  We bought some bottles to take home! This part of the tour also came with snacks – biltong and another meat product.  

After Villiera it was off to our second stop, Fairview.  Wine Flies bought some “drinking hats” for the ride.  Dan was a big fan of hats on this trip!

Fairview Wine & Cheese is a well-known winery that also produces delicious, amazing cheese!  Our tasting consisted of 6 wines of our choice and unlimited cheese samples!  YES, unlimited cheese!  I ate a lot of cheese.        And Fairview has friendly goats!   Our third stop of the day was also our lunch stop – Middelvlei!

At Middelvlei, we sat outdoors and were presented with a glass of Chardonnay to go with our Braai lunch – a/k/a South African BBQ.  The lunch had a lot of options and my favorite was the cheese toasty (sadly no pic!).

    After lunch, we went to the barrel room to try several wines straight from the barrel!  We love the wine thief!  

My favorite thing about this winery, they have two really sweet dogs.  One was a tiny dachshund and the other was the large dog pictured below.  The breed was originally breed to fight lions – but this one was a big softy!  He was also HUGE.  This picture does not do him justice.

After lunch, we headed to Lovane Boutique Wine Estate for a wine and chocolate pairing. The Lovane wines were really good and were paired with chocolate from a local chocolatier.   After Lovane, we made our way to our final stop – Annandale! Annandale is an old vineyard in Stellenbosh that makes some really good wines!  The day was getting a bit hazy at this point, so I only have a few pictures!    For the grand finale, our tour guide brought out a bottle or rose for us to share.  Nothing like rose straight from the bottle!   This was so fun and ended up being one of our favorite days of the entire trip!  This is a MUST DO if you are in the Cape Town area.

Steal Our Tour

 Wine Flies Wine Tours (you can make reservations easily from the website) Tel: +27 (0) 21 462 8011