I detect a subtle hint of....grapes?

Back to blogging after a long hiatus! We've spent the last three days in the idyllic Cape Winelands, which surround the little towns of Stellenbosch and Franschoek. On Monday, we drove down from Langebaan (on the West Coast) to Stellenbosch and made our first stop at Spier Vineyard. Spier has been described as the Disneyland of the winelands, and we soon learned why--several places to eat, a cheetah enclosure where you could pay extra to pet the baby cheetahs, two different wine tasting sites, an eagle encounter, pony rides, a hotel, the works!

Here we had our first wine tasting and were encouraged to smell and describe our thoughts to the group before tasting. After each of the five different wines, Sarah would close her eyes, ponder the aroma, and exclaim, "Smells to me like grapes!" Quite insightful. We didn't pretend to know nearly as much as the other group at the tasting...some Americans who proudly volunteered that they were a successful couple from Match.com.

Tuesday morning we rose bright and early to start a full day of wine tasting. We hit five "wine gardens" due to our start at 10:30 a.m. We saw a wide array of vineyards from the new and modern to the old and dingy. We had lunch at Tokara where our table was situated overlooking the grapes. Afterward, Thomas insisted we visit the only vineyard that was also a functioning dairy farm. Unfortunately he learned that the cows spoke Afrikaans, so it was difficult to communicate. Our final stop of the long and beautiful day was at Waterford Vineyards. At Waterford we tasted seven wines, the final three of which were paired with fine chocolates! Sarah was in heaven, but was constantly distracted by planning a wedding on the breathtaking grounds. Renewal of vows...look for your save the date soon!

Day three in the Cape Winelands started early again, but this time on horseback! With a friend we met at a B&B, we headed out on Roshina, Amy, and Jack through some amazing sights. We were all riding English (a new experience for us both), but by the end we were posting like pros as we trotted through the vineyards. We sampled wines at two lovely wineries and then had a late lunch in town at Franschoek.

Today we head for Le Petite Ferme (one of the finest lunch restaurants in all of South Africa) and then on to Hermanus for the whales! Although we faked it for three days, we've discovered that while we like drinking wine, we can barely distinguish red and white wines, much less the '06 Chardonnay versus the '05 Chenin Blanc!