An African Villa to La Petite Ferme to Jo'burg

Our lodgings in Cape Town were lovely, in a safe area for walking and near restaurants and a local trinket market. Delicious breakfast in the garden each morning and a lovely sitting room filled with decorated ostrich eggs and porcupine quills. Kathy our tour guide picked us up our final morning in the city to take us to the winelands, about an hour's drive. Kathy gave us a bit of South African history since the end of aparthied while we were on the motorway leaving town, passing all the fenced in shanty towns where the blacks live that have come south looking for opportunities. There aren't enough houses or apartments for them, and they come w/o much money or education, so they erect these shelters in the meantime. There is a noted separation between blacks, coloreds, and whites in their living and socialization, customs and traditions. A healthy middle class of blacks is growing as the government creates more opportunities for employment. It was interesting to hear our tour guide's perspective and how easily one can fall into using 'they' and 'we' when speaking of the present racial and class divide. We batted around ideas on how to solve the educational, social and economic problems of South Africa, realizing that our van ride wasn't nearly long enough. We remain thoughtful and hopeful about the future of the country.

Our first stop in the wine country was the scenic gardens and tasting room at Jordan vineyards located in the Stellenbosch Valley, a beautiful first stop to our tour.
They opened a lovely restaurant about 6 months ago, with it's own private cheese room. However, it wasn't our lunch spot so we moved on to the Glen Carlou Estate owned by Donald Hess, where we sat on the veranda with a view of the valley and mountains across the way and had an amazing meal paired with wonderful Glen Carlou wines.
Then off to Fairview Estate where Anita led us on an adventure in dessert cheeses paired w/ Fairview wines. We enjoyed petting the welcome goats in the pen out front (I swear one of them smiled at us) and bought some of their lovely goat and cow milk cheeses, bread, pickles and wines to enjoy later as a light meal for an after dinner arrival at La Petite Ferme.
We ate our meal on the veranda of one of our cabins overlooking a fishing pond and vineyards. Getting to La Petite Ferme meant driving around Simon's Peak - a mountain range that looks like a man with a belly lying on his back, his mouth open, snoring. When the clouds roll in it appears that he has pulled a white blanket over his stomach to keep warm. I think he may have had too much of the local wines!

A quick aside - La Petite Ferme was one of the vineyards that made the news in the last few months. A hillside fire drove the baboons out of their natural habitat, forcing them to raid the chardonnay grapes in the vineyard! Must have been quite a sight, and surely a nuisance to the winemaker.

The next morning we got a bit of much needed exercise after so many amazing meals and wines in Cape Town and wine country. Greg went for a run and I a walk-jog along the road, trying to keep in mind that the cars drive on the opposite side of the road to us. Then we all had a breakfast of fresh fruits, soft boiled eggs, smoked salmon, and fresh croissants before we packed up and then walked into town. On our way out we were stopped by the owner Mark, the winemaker at the farm. He said that we must join him for his winemaker's tour, which he himself only gives once every two weeks. He said if he had a choice he would surely choose the tour over the town, and he'd promised we would enjoy it. So, we gave up our bit of exercise to accompany him with only one other couple besides our group of 6 friends. I have to admit it was the better choice, being the highlight of our trip so far! He took us down into the fermenting room and explained the process, showed us the sand (from Wyoming!) he stirs by hand into clay to use as a filter for the wines, shared his temperature charts with us and described when to add yeast and vitamin C and a whole bunch of other details that I will spare you. Then we got to taste the wines from the tanks, while Mark continued to explain which ones are blended, which spend time in oak barrels, which corks and bottles he uses and why, and then even more details about the winemaking process. He then led us down another level again to the oak barrels, where we again got to taste more wines. Our white favorite was the blanc fume (that's what they call their fume blanc), his merlot, and his up and coming Verdict red blend of cab franc, merlot and cab due to be released in 2012. The tour lasted about an hour and 45 minutes, after which we wandered into the dining room and secured a table on the open veranda for an outstanding lunch of warthog, rabbit, duck, etc. all with artistic preparations, and each rivalling it's neighbor in flavours, scents and appearance. Alas, Kathy arrived to fetch us and we had to bid our sad goodbyes to the wine region and my friend Julie, who had joined us for lunch at La Petite Ferme.

I napped in the van on the way to the Cape Town airport, where we caught our flights to Johannesburg where we are now. They actually fed us dinner over a 1.5 hour flight, which wasn't bad at all, featuring a spicy malay sauce over fish and a cold pasta salad. We were greeted by our handler, Allen,(who held a sign up w/ our names on it - I always wanted to be greeted that way somewhere)who walked us over to the InterContinental Airport Hotel, where we start the beginning of our McCain-hosted part of our South African adventure. We have taken full advantage of the beautiful rooms with a bubble bath, rooibus tea, fluffy bathrobes and free wifi. Tomorrow morning we rise early to workout and breakfast, then off to the airport to catch our charter plane to Singita Sabi Sands game reserve, where we will meet up with the rest our the McCain party. Good night and sleep well!