Delaire Graff for delish wine-tasting and decadent diamonds; Boschendal for Dutch-gabled perfection; Franschhoek for a fabulous lunch and a motor museum
Accommodation agent Stay Amazing – through which we’d booked the Cape Town apartment (see Part One) – also operates wine tours.
Over dinner the previous night at La Perla – our first decent meal in Cape Town – our Capetonian foodie friend Karin Jenkins had suggested a one-day itinerary to introduce Californians Ellie and Steve to the Cape Winelands.
So we didn’t need a tour guide from Stay Amazing, just a driver. He arrived promptly at 10am, and we directed him to head for the university town of Stellenbosch, where Orientation Week was in full swing.
From there it’s a short drive over the Helshoogte pass to the highly recommended Delaire Graff Estate (Helshoogte Road, Stellenbosch) – previously simply named Delaire when it belonged to famous wine-critic John Platter, before it was acquired by UK banker Laurence Graff of Graff Diamonds.
Graff invested a bomb on developing the place into an impressive destination that includes restaurants, lodges, a spa and more. You could spend the whole day here – touring the estate, tasting wine, lunching and shopping. (Especially so if, like Ellie and Steve, you happen to be in the market for some jewellery from the on-site Graff Diamond shop.)
The swish and modern main building also boasts: a stunning foyer; a wonderful modern art collection; three high-end fashion boutiques (100% Capri, Vana and Africa Nova); and Indochine, described as “a culinary trip from Africa to Asia” with Head Chef Virgil Khan as your guide. Here you can dine either indoors or on the terrace, with spectacular views of the Stellenbosch Valley and of Table Mountain.
We relaxed in the alfresco area of the Wine Lounge, where a R100 tasting menu lets you sample the wines before you buy them.
We bought three of the four labels we tried: a delightful cabernet franc rosé, the Chenin Blanc Swartland Reserve, and the Botmaskop Shiraz.
(They’ve now been delivered safely to my mother’s Durban flat to await our return. But in these troubled times, who knows when that will be? Or whether she’ll use the current COVIC-19 lockdown as an excuse to tuck in? – particularly as the South African government has banned the sale of alcohol during the crisis.)
From Delaire Graff, Karin suggests going across the road to try the great wines of Tokara; it’s owned by the DP Ferreira who started Investec Bank. And right next door to that is Thelema, also well worth a visit.
Then follow the R45 to Groot Drakenstein and stop at Boschendal wine estate, a venerable institution with a picture-perfect Cape-Dutch-gabled homestead.
Some years before its recent redevelopment, Karin used to run Boschendal’s restaurant. During that time, Achim von Arnim, now the owner of nearby Haute Cabriére wine estate, was the winemaker at Boschendal.
(*Apart from her culinary talent, clever Karin is also a polyglot. Back in the day, she attended Villa Brillamont in Lausanne – a cookery and language school where she studied three European languages before coming back to Cape Town to qualify as a chef at Silwood Kitchen.)
Then on to the enchanting village of Franschhoek – originally settled by my ancestors, the benighted French Huguenots. (Click here for my previous post on this subject.)
Review: Reuben’s, Franschoek
For lunch, Karin had recommended Reuben’s, located in a bright and spacious converted warehouse at 2 Daniel Hugo Street. It was fabulous.
Celebrated chef Reuben Riffel (born 1974 in this area) owns several eateries in the region and around the country. He opened this one in 2017, and also has one in nearby Chamonix where he cut his culinary teeth.
After starting with heirloom tomato salad with fresh and thyme-roasted tomatoes, butter lettuce, tomato gel, belnori goats cheese mousse, sumac powder, puffed rice and pine nut granola (R105, the girls); cauliflower samosas with kasundi relish, coriander yoghurt and sweet carrot pickle (R55, Roy); and soy-glazed duck salad (R120), which the seldom overtly emotional Steve declared the best salad he had ever had; I tucked into the beef cheeks, slow-braised in an Asian spice-inspired jus; Roy had the beef short-rib; Ellie the cauliflower risotto and Steve the sirloin – all excellent.
Motor-head Mecca
I’d wanted to do a tasting at award-winning L’Ormarins Wine Estate, now owned by billionaire Johann Rupert and still part of the Anthonij Rupert wine stable; but that happens at a different location from the magnificent Franschhoek Motor Museum (R80 pp entry), which he also owns.
By the time we’d strolled through the four showrooms – they could not be better suited for the purpose – it was time to head back to Cape Town. We couldn’t not stop at Haute Cabriére (Lambrechts Road, Franschhoek), as it’s part of Roy’s and my romantic history.
Next time, we will stop in at Babylonstoren, as Karin suggested, and take a walk around its magnificent garden.
Watch out for Part Three of Cape Town with the Campbells, for details of a day in the city and a memorable lunch in gorgeous Constantia.
