Wine-tasting in Stellenbosch

South Africa is known for its wines.  Some of the original French and Dutch settlers started vinyards here as early as the 1690s.  Jim has fallen in love with a grape variety here called Pinotage, so that is what we’ve been ordering and buying by the bottle!

Jim, Beth, and Mark by "pre-wine" plantings

Our first night out of Cape Town we spent near Stellenbosch, a wine region as famous here as Napa is in the States.  Knorhoek Wine Estate and Guest House is nestled in the foothills of the Simonsberg Mountains.  It has been in the van Niekerk family for five generations – after Johannes van Niekerk purchased the farm at the insistence of his wife, Susanna.  She was a great granddaughter of the original owning family from the late 1700s, and wanted it back in the family.  Since then, five generations of van Niekerks have lived on and worked on the vineyard.

It was harvest time when we stayed– and the winemaker had no time to explain the process to a few interloping tourists, but we could sense the bustle – and we were able to taste “the fruit of the vine.”  We arrived at 5:15 p.m. for our stay, only to learn that there was free wine tasting for guests up until 5:00.  No worries.  We were treated to a bottle of wine of our choice, and we sat outside on the terrace to enjoy the lowering sun – and rising half-moon. 

Mark and Beth stayed in the guesthouse which was actually converted from the original stable, wagon shed, and blacksmith shop.  But, you wouldn’t be able to tell that from the amenities today.   Jim and I stayed in the “Rose Cottage” – with a bed so big Jim complained that it felt he was sleeping alone.  

The guesthouse is supposed to be known particularly for its Eagle Owls.  I mentioned to the hostess that I hadn’t seen any.  She walked me out the door and pointed one out in the tree directly over my head!  

You can tell Mark is a Koopman.
If you look closely, you'll see Mark
making rabbit ears over Jim's head!

The next morning, we set out in the general direction of PE.  We had a reservation at a B and B in the town of Wilderness that night, and thought we would "wine-taste" our way there.  Jim and I had kept the identity of our first stop secret from Mark and Beth.  After backtracking a bit from the day before, we pulled into another winery.  It was called Koopman Kloof!   Unfortunately we learned that they no longer did wine tastings, but we did get a nice picture of two "Koopman kids" by its gate.