SS woke up unscathed from the aspirin (even his cold was a little better) so clearly the dosage was different or the extent of his allergy is changed from when he was 10 and hospitalised the last time aspirin was in his life.
We breakfasted by the pool as usual, relaxed for a while, then headed up to Le Petite Ferme for the wine tasting followed by lunch.
The views from the garden out the front of the restaurant down over the valley are quite lovely.
The restaurant itself burned down in the late 90's and was completely rebuilt by the John Dendy Young, the owner. He and his wife Carol had first bought and opened the place as a restaurant as his wife is a keen cook. The vineyard followed afterwards, and the wines were more of a support act to the food in the owner's eyes.
John runs the tours and is very entertaining. His son, Mark, however, now owns the vineyard and restaurant with accommodation and other small ventures, and has really taken it in hand to make it more profitable. There is a different vibe now, a little more corporate, but Mark is ever present as we were having lunch, and is a truly good mix of a host and also coming up with ideas to make the place compete with the larger corporate establishments which have a lot of money thrown at them but their business owners.
John's tour was a little bit done by rote, and he certainly is not the expert on his wines anymore, but he is a charming man and the tour was well worth it.
Tour over, we settled for the wine tasting in the old dining room upstairs. This was nicely and professionally done, and whilst SS and I had to choke down some whites first, the reds were a very pleasant surprise, in particular their bordeaux blend called The Verdict which was very heavy Cabernet Franc (which I do like). Truly a lovely bottle. Since there were 10 of us for the tasting, one bottle of the Verdict was left about 2/3 full after the tasting, so SS asked if we could have a top up. We knew there was only one tasting per day, so it was not like they were saving it for the next tour. They were happy to oblige, so the two of us stayed at the table as the others drifted off, and sampled another glass. Then, since there was only really a glass and a half left in the bottle, he asked if we could possibly finish it, and they agreed. So we had had a very nice bottle for nothing effectively. Waste not want not. We took the glasses through to the table for lunch.
I liked the menu, SS struggled with his main choice again. We both had the lemon and garlic bocconcini salad with sundried tomatoes, olives and salsa to start - really lovely, particularly the balsamic reduction.
Then I had the sea trout with warm potato salad which was delicious and light. I had a glass of their MCC to go with it - bubbles at any time make me tiddly, but at lunch on a hot day, I was positively effervescent.
SS dislikes potatoes so had gone for the pineapple chicken which was nicely done, but not really what he wanted at lunch time. He had a glass of cabernet sauvignon to go with it. The menu was lacking lunchtime options which were not hot, particularly given the temperature was over 40 degrees again. If I could make a suggestion it would be to have a section of salads as well - the ingredients are all there.
I was still a little peckish, and knowing this was the main meal of the day, I ordered a nougat parfait with with caramel espresso sauce. It was very cool, and not sweet which was exactly what I wanted. SS even liked it and helped me finish it.
After a heavy lunch and wine in the middle of the day, we were not really up for much that afternoon. We relaxed for a while then walked down to the internet cafe to check emails and news for the first time in a week. This took over an hour of course, and by the time we sweated our way back to the house, it was 5:30pm. I flopped into the pool (only thing to do when it is still over 30 degrees at 5:30pm). My driving arm which had got so sunburnt in the Kruger was now peeling, and so it got the full coating of SPF50 any time we went outside.
Out of the pool, and we had some crisps and beers whilst reading our books. I finished the Chris Brookmyre book and started on the next one. Then made a light dinner of tuna mayo sandwiches and salad.
We headed up to the mezzanine afterwards to watch Four Play, a truly dreadful film with Colin Firth in it that had been re-released when he made the big time with Pride and Prejudice and really should have stayed on the shelf. We both fell asleep watching it, waking tired and grumpy at about 11pm. Off to bed. This was a true holiday day - relaxed, decadent and hot and sunny.
The next day started like Groundhog Day - hot sunny, with the sun waking us at 8am. Up at 10am after tea and day planning in bed. and breakfast by the pool. We wanted to get some proper colour, so into the sun at 11:30am. The temperature was again up near the 40s. I had SPF 15 on me, and gave front and back about 45 minutes each before retreating into the shade. SS, who can normally survive nuclear equivalents of sun, lay out with no SPF for over an hour. Silly. I suggested he was going a bit red and really should go in or put on some SPF. He reluctantly agreed.
So we showered again, had some lunch (a salad) and drove off to the Franschhoek Motor Museum which is part of the Rupert wines holding on the road on the way to Stellenbosch. I would not normally get excited about a motor museum, but this got a great write-up and it was a nice change from the wine tasting roundabout (plus we intended to do a tasting afterwards).
The cars are housed in 4 huge Cape Dutch style warehouses, and you start at the first on the left and just work your way around.
I won't try to describe everything we saw (and some of it was huge collections of Dodge cars from the 60s which are not really my thing) but here is a highlight of the 100+ cars that are there - all part of the private collection of the Rupert family who are still the richest in South Africa. Starting from the oldest...
We then crossed down to the second two warehouses. Isn't this the most stunning vista - I can't imagine how lovely it must be to live somewhere like this?
On to the second two warehouses...
SS in Ferrari corner - any colour so long as it is red...
And past one of my favourite all time cars - the Honda NSX...
Highly recommended - I really enjoyed it. We got back in the car and headed down to the official tasting room for the Anthonij Rupert wines - this is the sort of tasting SS likes (I like them too, but also enjoy the farmhouse style ones). This is definitely corporate!
We were a little late but the staff were happy for us to stay and have a tasting. We chose one of the alcoves with sofas off to one side. Unfortunately he did not end up with one of his nubile servers in a tight dress - rather we got a rather uninformed but perfectly nice 19 year old male serving us this time. Luckily he left us alone for the most part which is our preference really - most of the information was on the tasting notes in any case.
And Mr Strong lined up with our wines...
We had two flights of wines - the Blends and the Merry Merlots. As you can tell, this is the corporate take on wine tasting when they name the different tasting options! The wines were OK, but the real standout for me was the port. They don't make it anymore, but I thought it was well worth finding room for a bottle to take back with us. (Note they did not wave the tasting fee on purchase...)
Back home to relax again (touring and tasting really takes it out of you!). Small snack on crisps, then we decided to head to Co'Cacchio pizzeria for dinner - on our last trip we had eaten there twice - once in Camp's Bay and once in Franschhoek. It was again stifling - well over 30 degrees at 8pm, but since the outside tables were slightly overrun with small children we decided to sit inside. I had a Castle Light, but SS asked for a spicy tomato juice. He helpfully explained he wanted chilli with it (meaning tabasco), but the lovely waitress took him at his word, and brought tomato juice, two types of tabasco, and a small plate of chopped chilli. He was in heaven mixing up his own spicy juice to his taste.
We were quite hungry, and despite remembering that the serving sizes were pretty huge we still ordered a salad to share as well as a half and half pizza each. The salad was absolutely lovely - beans, broccoli, quinoa, other veg and an asian style dressing. Really light but flavoursome.
Then the pizzas arrived - SS had half Diablo and half meaty.
I had half chilli prawns and half verdure. Yum.
Needless to say we had leftovers, which we took home with us, but it was a lovely dinner. The sun exposure was kicking in at this point however, and SS was shivering and going hot and cold. Our skin was also very tight feeling, and mine was already beet red. So we slathered ourselves (literally) in body cream, SS took some ibuprofen to try counteract the sunstroke, and we went to bed at 9pm ;-).
Not a great night's sleep for him due to the sunburn, but a cup of tea in the morning was well received. Since it was Friday I put the rubbish bag out, and then we got an unexpected knock on the door at 10am. Since the front gate is padlocked we knew it must be someone with a key, and sure enough it was K's friend Taki who wanted to take his car out of the garage (which required us to move our car from the driveway). SS moved the car (only time he drove all week ;-) ) and Taki headed off. We did send an email to K letting him know just for politeness.
After showers, lots of body cream, and breakfast, we were finally on the road at 11:45am, aiming for the tasting at De Trafford which is only open from 10-1 on Fridays. The cloud formations over Franschhoek were stunning so a photo was necessary as we drove out.
Traffic through Stellenbosch was truly dreadful, at a standstill on the R42, and then we took a number of wrong turns as nothing is really well signposted there. Particularly De Trafford which does not really want to be found. After negotiating a very rocky single lane road for 5km, we arrived hot, dusty, and stressed at about 12:50pm, hoping for the best. Luckily the charming girl in charge was happy for us to have a tasting as another couple were still finishing up. She was SS's favourite of the week, and the place itself was the most rustic - one little bar area in the corner of their barrel storage area. Quite charming, and the girl was fairly knowledgeable. Anything she didn't know she could shout out to the office right behind her where the winemaker was sitting! This is what I love about South African wineries - there are so many where you are speaking directly to the person who owns and makes the wine!
Here is SS's favourite taster of the week, behind some of our favourite wines for the week...
And me checking out the notice board...
The wine line up..
We got talking to the other couple, who were from Boston and a mix of slightly amusing (him) and slightly high maintenance (her). But we really enjoyed the wines - my favourite was the 2009 Merlot and the Straw Wine. SS really like the cabernet sauvignon and the Straw Wine. So we ended up by a bottle of the Cab Sav and two bottles of the Straw Wine and everyone was happy. De Trafford also did an experiment in 2010 where they sourced shiraz grapes from six different terroirs around the cape, and then made the wine from the grapes using exactly the same method. This was to showcase the difference between the soil type and aspect of where the grapes are grown, removing all other variables. You can buy five shirazes together (one failed to ferment properly) in a lovely box called The Placemat, and compare the taste. Only R800 for the set. I was so tempted but SS gave me THAT look, explained to me that another 5 bottles of wine were not possible to be taken but in our luggage, and we should consider shipping it if I was that attached to the idea. On reflection, the problem really is that there are 5 bottles that need to be drunk at one time. That requires at least 5 people to be present who understand/appreciate wine and don't just swill it down, and we were struggling to identify 3 friends who met that criteria. So it is still to be considered if we get in touch to ship some over to us.
Back off down the goat track, passing some newly replanted fields (vines only last about 30-40 years in most winemakers opinion in this region given the heat).
And on to our next tasting at Waterford. This was again the stunning corporate type of vineyard. A huge contrast to De Trafford just up the road. We went through (after a loo stop in some rather lovely corporate style bathrooms), to the courtyard behind where the tastings are held.
Mr Strong picked our table for us, and soon our hostess Tanya arrived. She was probably 18 but looked 12 and was very nervous, flighty and picked for looks rather than knowledge. Bless, she did her best.
We went for the standard tasting and had 3 whites (ugh) and 3 reds thrown at us. They were nasty, and I have not had such a full swill bucket in any wine tasting ever (until Simonsig, but that is still to come ;-) ).
We asked if we could also taste the Jem, and this meant a huge performance of a decanter and a bottle in a box. Just ridiculous. Luckily this was the first time Tanya had ever handled a decanter (she told us) and she had no idea how to do it - this meant a very large tipple of the Jem into each glass as she lost control of the balance of the decanter. Shame it wasn't nicer!
We did try the dessert wine however which is called the Heatherleigh (after the wives of the winemakers - one of the few things Tanya did know), and this was lovely. So we bought a bottle of this and Tanya nicely only charged us for one reduced tasting, so all in all it was a pleasant tasting experience. Shame the wines were so unimpressive.
We had a choice of stopping at Ernie Els or Uva Mira (recommended by De Trafford). Since we knew Ernie Els from last time, I decided a new place was worth checking. So glad we did. Uva Mira is right at the top to the road, commanding the best views down to False Bay. The guy that was serving us did tell us that he spent half his time acting as a bouncer for day trippers who come up for the view, get completely drunk and don't want to leave, so he needs to forcibly remove them after sundowners. I can see why the views are an attraction.
We were a little late for the tasting, but since we were only have the red the guy was happy for us to stay. And all I can say is forget the views, the wines were fantastic. Their Red Blend and also the Cab Sav/Merlot blend were truly wonderful. We savoured them (with Mr Strong) out on the terrace, and just kicked back for a while. So relaxing. Apparently the vineyard is owned by an 82 year old woman who moved there with her husband in the late 80s - he was a mining magnate and his lungs were badly damaged by the various mine dusts, and so he was recommended to live at altitude near the sea. The vineyard was more of a hobby until he died, then she employed a winemaker and let him do what he wants. He still had free rein and is turning out some truly lovely wines. They only sell them at the cellar door, and ship to Sweden apparently, otherwise there is nowhere else to buy them!
So we had to get a couple of bottles - in this case two of the cab sav/merlot blends which were SS's favourite. Then back in the car (reluctantly) and back over the pass to Franschhoek - the heat was still building, making some lovely cloud formations.
We stopped off at Pick n Pay for some supplies - being Friday and pay day for most of the workers, it was PACKED. Back at the house, it was dinner time. First I reheated the pizzas for a snack beforehand, as I had a conference call for a deal that was due to close at 8pm local time. Afterwards I made what was becoming our old staple - boerewors salad with garlic, spring onions and peppers. Yum. Beautiful sunset too...
We watched some episodes of Cold Feet on DVD (I had not seen it before, and based on this and the presence of Helen Baxendale who is not my favourite actress by a long shot) I doubt I will watch any more. Off to slather ourselves in more cream, and off to sleep...
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