Franschhoek in mid-winter — photographs

Even in the middle of winter the gor­geous town of Franschhoek in the Cape Winelands enchants. If you are look­ing for a romantic break­away, Franschhoek in winter is a gem with lots of charm­ing places to stay and lots to do in and around the town. Franshhoek’s vil­lage has a won­der­ful col­lec­tion of art and antique shops and gal­ler­ies and the main streets are lined with res­taur­ants and cof­fee shops and things to do. It is easy to spend a day or week­end (or even a week ort two!) here and Franschhoek serves as an excel­lent spring­board to other wine routes and the Four Passes Fruit Route, of which Franschhoek is also part ... Continued

I ♥ Stellenbosch Because ...

I ♥ Stellenbosch

Hi, I’m Joerg Streibing from Auberge Rozendal in Stellenbosch. We are just 30 minutes from Cape Town International Airport and right in the heart of the Cape Winelands.

Stellenbosch IS BEST KNOWN FOR its friendly people, young stu­dent vibe, clas­sic uni­ver­sity build­ings and Cape Dutch archi­tec­ture, as well as the fant­astic wines and award win­ning food.

GET YOUR PICTURE TAKEN in front of Stellenbosch's most his­toric icon, the Moeder Kerk (Mother Church) and you will return to Stellenbosch.

THE BEST animal PICTURES CAN BE TAKEN AT Vredenheim Wine & Game Estate with the ostrich, spring­bok, wilde­beest, don­keys, and many more ...
OTHER HAPPY SNAPS can be taken while you enjoy yourselves at the weekly Stellenbosch Slow Food Market held at the Oude Libertas Center every Saturday year around.
Continued

I ♥ Wellington Because ...

I ♥ Wellington

Hi, I’m Tina Casu from Grand Dédale Country House in Wellington in the Cape Winelands.

Wellington IS BEST KNOWN FOR beau­ti­ful moun­tain scenery, authen­ti­city, great organic pro­duce and its gen­er­ous and friendly people.

GET YOUR PICTURE TAKEN AT at Doolhof Wine Estate with stun­ning moun­tain views all around. Go down to the river walk and take your pic­ture next to the mys­tic labyrinth.
THE BEST sun­down PICTURES CAN BE TAKEN fol­low­ing an after­noon game drive at Bontebok Ridge — sit at the lapa over­look­ing the dam with the moun­tains turn­ing red in the background.

OTHER HAPPY SNAPS AT one of the his­tor­ical sites – like the Anglo-Boer War Block House, this is the most south­erly relic of the Anglo-Boer war. It was one of a num­ber of for­ti­fied Block Houses built by the British to pro­tect the rail­way line from boer com­mandos, or the Lady Loch steel bridge, the very first all steel bridge built in South Africa and is still in use today. Continued

Stellenbosch Fresh Goods Market Photographs

I had been look­ing for­ward to this Saturday morn­ing for a while now, my friend had told me about a fant­astic mar­ket she had been to and we had finally arranged to go together. The Stellenbosch Fresh Goods Market is held every Saturday at the Oude Libertas Estate, Stellenbosch, Cape Winelands and opens at 09h00. We had a won­der­ful leis­urely few hours brows­ing through the mar­ket which offers you any­thing and everything from fresh pro­duce, delect­able home baked good­ies (you simply have to try the nou­gat and waffles), cloth­ing, jew­ellery and more. The stall hold­ers are happy to chat to you about their products if you have any ques­tions. I adore going to mar­kets and will be back to this one soon (armed with more cash and empty bags). Continued

Lunch at Delvera — Mama Joan's Farm Kitchen, a delight

Mama Joan's Farm

I've heard of Delvera. They are con­nec­ted with a full moon hike, and children's theatre, and I'd stumbled across them a couple of times in my trawl­ings of the web in the bid to find excit­ing things to do over week­ends in the Cape Winelands.

What I didn't real­ise was that a visit out to Delvera is a day's enter­tain­ment on its own. This is not, as I first thought, a wine estate – although you can sample around 400 top South African wines on the estate at the Vineyard Connection, a wine shop in what was once a hay store. But let me not get ahead of myself. Delvera is actu­ally some­thing of a vil­lage that is also part of the Klapmutskop con­servancy (five farms, includ­ing Delheim, share own­er­ship and pro­tect and con­serve the area though sus­tain­able prac­tices). In the late 1980s Delvera was bought by Delheim, a neigh­bour­ing family-owned wine farm, so that they had a boun­ti­ful sup­ply of water for their vine­yards. Continued

Constantia Winelands Photographs

We couldn't have asked for bet­ter weather when we went on a short tour of the Constantia Wine Route recently. With so many options to choose from it was a dif­fi­cult decision of where to go. We settled on a lazy lunch and wine tast­ing at Buitenverwachting and a late after­noon tast­ing (which turned into a relaxed din­ner) at Bistro 1682 at Steenberg. If you live in Cape Town and haven't yet gone on your own wine exper­i­ence I hope these pho­to­graphs inspire you. Otherwise if you're a vis­itor this should be very high on your to do list...

Continued

Wine farms where you can picnic in the Western Cape

Picnic Venues

It's a per­fect day, the weather is scream­ing for a pic­nic. There are usu­ally two scen­arios, when the idea of a pic­nic emerges. One is: you expertly, and in no time at all, pro­duce the hum­mus, tsat­siki, sushi, farm cheese and home-baked bread your­self and need that per­fect venue to off­set your production.

The second is: you've over­stretched your­self dur­ing the past week and couldn't pro­duce a piece of buttered bread, let alone an entire spread your­self. Besides, you think you're owed a gour­met pic­nic bas­ket, includ­ing the blanket (some wine farms do provide the whole she­bang), for the con­tri­bu­tion you make to your fam­ily and greater mankind.

The good news is that each of these scen­arios is eas­ily met in the Western Cape. There is now a grow­ing list of wine farms that real­ise that there is no bet­ter way to show­case their wines than hav­ing you come to their per­fect idylls to exper­i­ence a good nosh on the banks of whatever river there is wind­ing through their farm, together with a bottle of one of their wines ... Continued

Waterford Estate — Wonderful Wine at Waterford

Waterford Estate

It’s a beau­ti­ful sunny day, and I can tell the day is going to be hot. I’m head­ing down the high­way towards Stellenbosch, watch­ing the moun­tains come ever closer. My goal is the Waterford Wine Estate. To my mind this little winery is the jewel in the Stellenbosch Wine Route’s crown. Waterford is a rel­at­ively young estate, which was foun­ded by the Arnold and Ord fam­il­ies in 1998. Don’t dis­count it because of its age though; this estate pro­duces some fant­astic wines. The estate can be found in the pic­tur­esque Blaauwklippen Valley, and the winery was designed by archi­tect Alex Walker in the man­ner of the clas­sic Bordeaux chat­eaus of France. The build­ings are beau­ti­ful, and local stone was used to give the build­ings their warm glow ... Continued

Franschhoek Oesfees at Solms-Delta Wine Estate

Franschhoek Oesfees

It's oh so very nearly Oesfees time again and I for one have penciled it into the diary already!  The 4^th annual 2011 Franschhoek Oesfees will take place on March 26^th at the Solms-Delta Wine Estate in Franschhoek.  I went last year and had an abso­lute ball so I would ima­gine that this year will be big­ger and bet­ter than before!

The Franschhoek Oesfees is an event like no other, bring­ing the farm work­ers and farm own­ers of the val­ley to kuier and cel­eb­rate together; giv­ing thanks for the end of the har­vest and the hard work that went with it.  The day is one of live, tra­di­tional Cape music, and proper Kaapsekos .... Continued

Stellenbosch photographs

The beau­ti­ful town of Stellenbosch, roughly an hour from Cape Town, lies sur­roun­ded by the Stellenbosch Mountains in the Jonkershoek River Valley in one of the most pic­tur­esque set­tings in the Western Cape. The second old­est town in South Africa has fondly been called ‘Eikestad’ or city of oaks and its streets are lined with some of the most beau­ti­ful sur­viv­ing examples of Cape Dutch, Georgian and Victorian archi­tec­ture in the Cape. Dorp Street is a national monu­ment and Continued

Cooking demo at Olivello Restaurant in Stellenbosch

If you are look­ing for some­thing dif­fer­ent to do next week­end or would like to spruce up your recipe books and cook­ing skills then a cook­ing demo at Olivello Restaurant in Stellenbosch in the Cape Winelands could be just the thing for you (takes place on Saturday 19^th February).  With cof­fee and bis­cotti served at 9.30am with the demo com­men­cing at 10am sharp — call up your friends and book a spot before they are all snapped up ... Continued

A picnic at Landskroon

Picnic at Landskroon

They're said to make the best port in the world at Landskroon. And who am I to argue. What I did know, on the very windy pub­lic hol­i­day on which we set out towards Paarl from Cape Town, is that they were one of very few wine estates that allow you to pitch with your own pic­nic and use their grounds to enjoy your lunch. Driving up the beau­ti­ful expans­ive and untarred drive­way that seems to be a pre-requisite for all wine estates in the Western Cape, if not South Africa, my first impres­sion is that Landskroon got stuck some­where back in the sev­en­ties ... Continued

Solms-Delta Summer Concerts

Solms-Delta Wine Estate is a mag­ni­fi­cent wine estate loc­ated 15km out­side of Franschhoek in the beau­ti­ful Cape Winelands.  The estate thrives on both wine and cul­ture and the Saturday Summer Supper Concerts are the per­fect way to show­case that culture.

The pop­u­lar Summer Concerts are part of the Delta Trust’s Music van de Caab pro­ject on the estate. Established in 2007 to recover and rebuild her­it­age in all its forms and with a desire to cre­ate a true sense of value and self-esteem within the Winelands, the Trust ini­ti­ated a Cape music pro­ject. The annual end-of-harvest Franschhoek Oesfees (26 March 2011) and these Summer Concerts show­case this music pro­ject, which now includes people from the wider sur­round­ing areas. Continued

Lunch at Lanzerac

Lunch at Lanzerac

We spent the recent Heritage Day long week­end in the Cape Winelands and had lunch at Lanzerac on Friday.  I’d spent a few hours at the Spa and feel­ing a bit peck­ish we opted for what was close at hand – The Taphuis!  There was a fresh breeze blow­ing so we were happy to sit inside and the interior with its massive fire­place and long, wooden bar counter set a per­fect ambience.

There are only a few tables in The Taphuis but they are fairly large and I appre­ci­ated not hav­ing to rearrange the cut­lery, crock­ery and glass­ware to make enough space for the bread bas­ket! The ser­vice was good (although as we were one of two tables you would expect it to be!) and before long we were tuck­ing into a very sat­is­fy­ing lunch indeed ... Continued

Jazz on Friday in Franschhoek starts 29 October

Jazz on Friday

Another reason to be happy its finally Spring ... The new sea­son of Jazz on Friday, fea­tur­ing the Cape Dutch Connection, kicks off on 29 October 2010 and con­tin­ues every Friday until 1 April 2011 from 5.30pm to 8.30pm.  This sea­son, the band will be play­ing at a new venue, Col'Cacchio Pizzeria in Huguenot Street, Franschhoek.

Band leader Derk Blaisse says the venue, which they tried out at a per­form­ance dur­ing the Bastille Festival in July, is per­fect.  “The garden at Col’Cacchio has a won­der­ful coun­try feel and is set against the back­drop of the Franschhoek moun­tains.  Being in the main road we have the advant­age of attract­ing passers-by and the vibe of being in the middle of a cos­mo­pol­itan vil­lage. I think we are going to have a fant­astic sum­mer sea­son.” Continued