Essecke: 2015

The Afrikaans language monument

On Tuesday the 27th it was time to head to our last stop in South Africa, Cape Town. Before leaving Paarl we went to visit the Afrikaans Language Monument and did one final stop (we thought) at the wine farm. We did a quick tasting at the Landskroon wine farm and bought a one bottle of their portwine.

Part of the monument

Plants in the garden of the the monument

Entering the tasting room of the Landskroon wine farm

View from the Landskroon wine farm

Our way down to Cape Town took us past Stellenbosch where we decided to make a quick stop in the centre. The whole place felt very crowded so we just walked a short round and jumped back into the car. It was still early and we didn't have to drive to Cape Town yet. We had told our guesthouse that we would be arriving between 4 and 5pm. We decided to go to have lunch on wine farm we had visited the previos time: The Jordan Wine Estate. Our dinner there three years ago had been fantastic! One of those experiences which will stay with us for the rest of our lives. Because we were so close to the farm and it was lunch time we thought why not? Let's drive there and find out what has changed in three years. We didn't regret this decision. Nowadays they have two restaurants a bistro style Bakery and the Jordan Restaurant. We hadn't made reservations for the lunch so we decided to eat at the Bakery.

The view at the Jordan has stayed the same. I have a photo like this from our previous trip as my computer background and it was pretty amazing to sit down to the terrance and take in the view as real.

Cheers!

Salt and pepper squid, wild rocket, aioli and chimichurri 70 ZAR

Sticky Moo Moo, honey and soy glazed beef brisket, toasted sesame seeds and dukkah slaw 95 ZAR

Lemon meringue pie

Salty Caramel Chocolate Tart

After lunch we also stopped at the tasting room, because I wanted to buy some bottles of the sauvignon blanc I had drank to the lunch. The guy at the tasting room was super nice. He told us that there are actually two sauvignon blancs so we, of course, had to taste both of them. We were talking about the farm and told him that it was already our second time there because we really loved the place. He got quite excited and asked if we would like to taste their better Chardonnay, which according to him is one of the best Chardonnays in the world: Nine Yards 2013. He said that normally the wine is not open for tasting but the owner had had some visitors earlier who had tasted the wine and thus there was one open bottle. When somebody claims wine to be one of the best, we just had to taste it. And yeah, it might be the best Chardonnay I have tasted so far :D So, we left the place with six wine bottles.

Despite the heavy traffic in Cape Town we arrived at the right time to the Merriman Road where our guest house welcomed us with open arms. For the rest of our stay we had booked a room at the Bluegum Hill Guest House. Absolutely a perfect place to stay when in Cape Town. Lovely room and the view is superb. The place is owned by two sisters who both were the most helpful. They helped us to conform a booking for the Test Kitchen and told us many useful tips. If we ever go back to Cape Town, we will for sure book a room in this place again. A stay of four nights with breakfast in a king room cost us 6760 ZAR. (446 Eur / 487 CHF). By the way, it was hard work carrying all the wine we had bought all the way down to the room ;D Luckily we got some help.

Our room at the Bluegum Hill Guest House

The owners dog looking in

One could see down to the Waterfront

The view from the upper terrace

On Sunday the 25th we left Biedouw Valley behind and drove down to Paarl, but not without stops. First we drove to the coast because I wanted to see the ocean. From Enjo to Lambert's Bay it was about two hours (120 km). From Lambert's Bay we took the costal road down to Elands Bay (45min about 50km) where we stopped to buy something to drink and do a walk on the beach. It's a nice small place, popular among surfers.

Bye, bye Biedouw Valley!

Elands Bay: cloudy sky to the north...

...and clear blue to the south.

Somewhere between Piketberg and Porterville

From Elands Bay we drove to the small town of Tulbagh. The drive took us something like two and half hours and was about 180km. We went to Tulbagh because I had read that it's a very picturesque small town with lots of beautiful old houses. The first thing we wanted when we got there was some lunch. It was already afternoon so we were getting quite hungry. We found a nice deli on the main street and stopped there to fill our stomachs. The place is called Things I love and it was very nice. The food was tasty and in their store they sell all kinds of things like clothes and small decoration items and also delicacies. After lunch we walked around and admired the old houses. If you are interested you can check them out in Google Street view. Just search for Tulbagh and Church Street.

A deli "Things I love" in Tulbagh

I had chicken pie with salad

Church Street in Tulbagh

I could live in any of these beautiful houses on the Church Street

From Tulbagh it was only a short drive to Paarl. We chose narrower and smaller road R301 over the Bain's Kloof Pass. If you hate driving narrow streets with lots or curves and steep drop on one side, you shoud maybe avoid this route. The views were great. The estimated travel time was about 1 hour 20 minutes, but we needed a bit longer because there had been an accident on the pass road and we had to wait while they were clearing the accident site.

In Paarl we had booked us a room at the Paarl Diamant Equestrian and Guest Farm. This was the cheapest of all the places we stayed. Two nights cost us only 1000 ZAR (66 EUR / 72 CHF). The place is not in Paarl so this would be on option for you only if have a car. The centre of Paarl isn't far though. The view from the guest house is superb and the people are nice. This place is more a farm than a guest house. I think they only have like three rooms to book. All in all, as a farm girl, I really enjoyed our stay there and Hubby liked it as well with all the animals around: dogs, cats, horses, cows on the neigbouring farm etc. Also here the breakfast was included. It was pretty standard with cereals, joghurt, toast and eggs of choice.

A fountain in front of the farmhouse

Arrived at the Paarl Diamant Equestrian Farm

The farm

In the evening we went to have dinner in Paarl at the De Kelder Paarl where we could watch rugby while eating

Funny text on the menu

On Monday the 26th we had a wine day. We wanted to visit some farms in the Paarl region to taste wine. Why did we actually chose Paarl and not the other, maybe more famous, regions of Stellenbosch or Franschhoek? Well, this was our third time in South Africa and we had already been twice to Stellenbosch and Franshoek so we just wanted to go somewhere else and this is how we ended up in Paarl.

To choose the wine farms to go to is difficult because there are some many of them. We decided to stay in the Paarl region otherwise the amount of places to visit would have been endless. I would have liked to do some research already on the Sunday evening but unfortunately our guest house didn't have a Wifi. So, we decided to drive to the tourism information on Monday morning to get some brochures. I really needed some decent coffee, cappuccino or espresso, so we stopped at the centre of Paarl, not farm from the tourism information, in the Bean in Love Coffee House. Finally good coffee and nice, warm scones as well. The location is great, right at the main stree, and the tables are under some shady trees. You can just watch the world passing by or you can plan your wine trip, as we did :D The tourist information gave us also good tips when we asked about the smaller farms.

On the way to the Mellast Vineyards

Our first stop was the Mellasat Vineyards. It's one of the smaller places. If I had to choose one favourite red wine sort it would be the Pinotage. After reading the brochure which tourism information had given us and finding out that Mellasat Vineyards is the home of the white pinotage, I just had to go there. To be honest, until that morning I didn't know that white pinotage exists, so, even more a reason to go there. Our visit was perfect! We were the only ones there and we ended up staying for one and half hours or so...tasting their wines and talking about everything from South African wines to Finnish drinking culture. The lady (I'm sorry but I have forgotten her name) in the tasting room was the nicest and the most informative. We ended up buying six bottles of White Pinotage. If you are anywhere near Paarl you should definitely have this place on your list to visit. We had great time. She also gave us couple tips where to go to. I love also sparkling wine, so she suggested that we could visit the Laborie Wine Farm, which is one of the oldest in South Africa or the Ridgeback Wine Estate on the other side of Paarl.

The entrance to the Mellasat Vineyards

True, isn't it? ;D

After finally leaving the Mellasat Vineyards, it was almost past lunch time so we decided to drive to the Laborie Wine Farm because there we would get something to eat and I would get the sparkling wines to taste. At the Laborie Estate there are two retaurants: The Taste and The Harvest. The latter is rather a restaurant when the previous one is an tapas place and a tasting room. The Harvest is closed on Mondays so we walked straight to the Taste. The terrace and the view there is great. So, I wanted to taste their sparkling wines. They offered me a Macaron and Méthode Cap Classique tasting but I wasn't so in the mood for something sweet so I only took the sparkling wines. We also ordered different tapas dishes and Hubby had sparkling grape juice to drink. All in all this is a nice place. The food was very good and we would like to dry the The Harvest for dinner some time.

From the sparkling wines I think that Laborie Brut Rosé was my favourite. The other two were Laborie blanc de blancs and Laborie Brut. Normally the sparkling wine tasting with macarons is 50 ZAR (3,3 EUR / 3,6 CHF), but we didn't have to pay anything. Maybe because we also ordered some food and I didn't take the macarons.

The entance to the tasting room.

Three different sparkling wines to taste

The view from the terrace of the tasting room

Lamb meatballs - romanesco sauce - rustic garlic croutons

Smoked, salted homemade crisps - droëwors - soft beef biltong - olives

Pan-fried chiken livers - Portuguese peri peri - toasted baguette

Chilli salt squid - cucumber spaghetti - Asian dipping sauce

At the Laborie Wine Farm

After lunch we drove to the Ridgeback Wine Estate. They were the second tip which the lady at the Mellasat Vineyards had given us. Unfortunately, the sparkling wine of the Ridgeback wasn't availabe for tasting. But no matter, we tasted other wines of theirs: Sauvignon Blanc 2014, Viognier 2014, Ridgeback Journey 2013, Merlot 2012 and Cabarnet Sauvignon 2013. My favourite was the Sauvignon blanc and I think Hubby's favourite was the Viognier. Also here we had great time with our host, who was Namibian/Southafrican and had been for one year to Norway. We had a lot to talk about. We did buy some wine here as well: Viognier and Cabarnet Sauvignon and also one bottle of sparkling wine.

The Ridgeback Wine Estate

Tasting

The terrace of the Ridgeback

Inside of the tasting room of Ridgeback

After Ridgeback we thought we had been tasting enough wines so we decided to head back to home which was right around the corner from the Ridgeback Wine Estate. Already in the morning we had decided that we would like to go to have some dinner at The Spiceroute. Before going there we had some time to relax and chill at the farm.

The Spiceroute is one of the biggest wine farms in the Paarl region. They offer all kinds of things and not just wine: grappa, cured meats, atrisan chocolates etc. We went there to have dinner at La Grapperia because we had heard that it would be a great place for sundowners with a perfect view of the winelands and even the Table Mountain. And this was true! The view was fantastic! And the sunset as well. On top of this the food was very good. They have rather simple things like pizza and Flammkuechen on the menu but for that the quality was great. Also the service worked very well.

Definitely worth a visit just because of the view. To the other things on the Spiceroute we can't say much because we only had dinner there.