We are doing a ‘transfer tour’ today from Franschhoek to our next stop at the coastal village of Hermanus on Walker Bay hitting some wineries along the way. Taryn is doing the driving for us. Our route takes us through the Bot River Valley, home to several well-respected wine farms. Taryn has arranged tastings at the wineries we selected ourselves. It’s a beautiful drive over the Franschhoek Pass but quite scary with pouring rain and fog. There was quite a bit of damage to the road and one-lane points due to last fall’s rains. We’re both glad we weren’t driving!
The Beaumont Family Wine estate is our first stop. The farm, home to the region’s oldest wine cellar, was originally established in the 1700s by the Dutch East India Company as a supply farm producing fruit, vegetables, dairy, wine and flour. Today they produce a limited range of rose, red and white wine. They also had an incredible farm/deli market next door. If we had a place to put it, we would definitely have bought some stuff there.
Our next stop was for lunch and tasting at the Gabrielskloof Estate. The estate owner, Bernhard Heyns, led our tasting of their ‘old wine’ offerings and their ‘Landscape Series’. Excellent stuff. We really liked the Cab Franc and Syrahs. Gabrielskloof makes two different Syrah – one grown in sandstone and the other in shale. Both are the same varietal and clone but with two entirely different characteristics. Our lunch was at the on-site ‘Farro’ restaurant. A nice rainbow appeared during our meal.
Our final stop in the Bot River Valley is at the Genevieve Wine Farm. Genevieve is a small, female-owned farm specializing in ‘Method Cap Classic’ (sparkling) production. Their two wines are a Sparkling Rose and Blanc du Blanc, both excellent. Owner and winemaker Melissa sat in on our tasting and was good fun. She was heading to the States for the first time in a few days on a South African wine appreciation tour. To say she was excited about her upcoming trip is an understatement.
We finished up our time with Taryn in the coastal town of Hermanus. We’re staying at ‘La Fontaine’, a guesthouse on Walker Bay directly across the street from the shore. What a fantastic place. One of the oldest buildings in Hermanus, La Fontaine was purchased and fully renovated by a wealthy family as a summer residence. After several years of leaving the property empty when they weren’t here, they decided to rent it out as a boutique hotel when not in use. We apparently got the owners suite. It’s a massive room with a king size bed, walk in closet, full seating area, a desk/coffee station with a ridiculously huge bathroom and two French doors onto a full veranda overlooking the water.
We decided to hang out for the night. We had wine, beer and snacks so all is good.