Wine tasting in Franschhoek

Finally, the Kelowna of South Africa, The Winelands. I am staying in Franschhoek which translates to 'French Corner'.

I have looked at all 6 lines of the routes and have chosen the orange line to start.

There are 9 vineyards on this line and if you are to see them all in the allotted time, then you have to taste quickly in 35 minutes and then onto the next one. That's ridiculous. I opted to spend one hour at as many vineyards as I could.

The vineyards on the orange line were:
Noble Hill,
Babylonstoren,
Backsberg,
Glen Carlou,
Verde en Lust,
Plaisirde Merle,
Alee Bleue,
Boschendal, and
Zorgvliet.

I had a vertical tasting at Noble Hill. It had a lovely garden to taste in. I bought a bottle of their Sav Blanc to take back to my room.

Second stop was Babylonstoren Vineyards.
I tried their MCC which means Methode Cap Classique which is the South African name for bottle fermented sparking wines and it is one of the most exciting categories in South African wine, currently growing at 15% per year. I would like to tell you that they were not pouring from their MCC for the wine tasting so I ordered their MCC as a glassful. I might have had 2 it was that good. I had to stop and have some snacks in their beautiful tasting room. Sadly they only offered their snacks for two but I ordered it anyway knowing that I would not likely finish it or in this case even put a dent in it. I may have eaten all the pate though. I bought a bottle of their bubbly.

Backsberg I did a wine and chocolate tasting. This was a weird vineyard in that they were more interested in big groups than little old me. After sitting at a table for 10 minutes, I had to go up to the cash counter to ask for a tasting menu. It was brought to me with no explanation and if I was a dishonest sort of person, I could have left without paying. Chocolate was good though.

I found Glen Carlou to be very pretentious and did a tasting on their balcony looking over the valley. Lovely place, snooty people. Its just wine for heavens sake.

Next was probably my favorite vineyard- Boschendal. We were dropped off at the parking lot and walked through the famous rose garden (the fragrance of the roses was intoxicating) to get to the tasting garden. The tasting garden was situated beside the old Manor House under one of the oldest oak trees on the estate. I picked the MCC and chocolate tasting and added a third tasting (ok this could only be ordered as a full glass- was their grand cru- I may have had two glasses of this). It was divine and the chocolate was from white chocolate (not really a chocolate but a confectionary). The chocolate was made special for the wine.

This wine pairing was so unexpected, as I sat under the tree with the

breeze blowing through the leaves over head, I thought how wonderful it would be to do this tasting at our dinner clubs. So I bought the two original MCC's and the chocolate that came with it. A thoroughly enjoyable tasting. And I thought a great idea.

Over night I started to wonder if I shouldn't have bought more as we had two dinner groups a month apart and if I open the MCC it will not last opened for the month, not even taking into consideration that there is never any opened wine left at either group.
So the next day was a free day (nothing formally booked) so I drove myself out to Boschendal and bought 2 more bottles and the chocolate bars to go with it plus I bought a black angus red. I dropped it all off (except the chocolate) to Post Net to ship to Canada. They guaranteed they could get it home to me through a dealer so I paid my $3000 ZAR (about $300) to ship it back home

Fingers crossed that I just didn't flush that fee plus the cost of the wine down the toilet.

On my way back to Clermont Auberge, I stopped for a late lunch to Chef's Warehouse at Maison winery. It was very good. As it turns out it was a great thing to have a late lunch and three courses as this evening 's supper was at the Oyster Disaster restaurant.

The Bon Bon menu didn't come out great on the photo's so I am just going to list them here.

Wellington - Fever Tea & Orange White Chocolate Ganache(Dome with Yellow, Orange and Bronze Swirls)
Kyoto - Sakura Green Tea and Cherry Blossom Dark Chocolate Ganache (Dome with Purple and Red Splashes)
Cognac - Cognac Dark Chocolate Ganache (Cylinder with Gold Splashes)
Maldon -Sea Salt Caramel (Silver Dome)
Swellendam - Honeybush Tea Infused Milk Chocolate Ganache (Square with Bronze)
Kobe - Shichimi Chilli and Naartjie Zest Dark Chocolate Ganache (Square with Chilli)
Sydney - Passion Fruit Carmel (Dome With Scarlet)
Beijing - Jasmine Scented Dark Chocolate Ganache (Square With Gold)