7 February Vintage cars and Vineyards

Our first road trip from Hout Bay was a two day one night excursion to the wine region called Franschoek. The wine areas are close to Cape Town so very easy to vist. Hard to leave though.

We began our trip yesterday driving through Stellenbosch town and our to Franschoek. We chose Franschoek (named after the French Hugeneots who began wine production here in 17^th century) because it is supposed to be the prettiest of the three wine valleys. I also chose it because there is a vintage car museum at the L'Omarins estate; a private collection of 400 cars amassed by a family who made their fortune selling legal drugs – cigarettes.

oldest car 1903

Jaguars

Quite by chance we arrived in time for a guided tour of the 80 cars on show in four purpose built hangars. Our guide, Erica, was a devoted petrol head with an encyclopaedic memory for details and trivia of the cars in the collection. I'm not a petrol head, but I found it all fascinating. I would have been more interested to tour the horse racing stud owned by the same family and on the same property.

Less than a mile from L'Omarins is one of the largest estates in the valley, Boschendal vineyard, hotel, bungalows, restaurants, farm shop and wine tastings. The literal translation of Bosch en Dal is woods and valley.

Boschendal lunch

Because we arrived at lunchtime we began our visit in the less formal restaurant. The food was divine, roast belly pork and a platter of pates and cheeses which we shared, and, for the non driving navigator, a glass of chilled rosé wine perfect for a summer day. Post lunch we wandered in to the estate house which is furnished with original pieces and has the 'speciality' wine tastings, ie too expensive for my uneducated palate. Here we met the manager who happens to be a direct descendant of the original de Villiers family. Francois gave us a personal tour and history of the building and showed us two large eared owls which were sitting in a tree outside the door.

It would have been rude to leave Boschendal without a wine tasting – we bought some of the rosé I'd had a lunch time and a few bottles of 2016 Pinotage.

The afternoon was passing quickly so we grabbed our goodies and turned for Franschoek village where we staying at a central B&B (our designated driver enjoys a glass of wine with dinner too). The village is definitely picturesque and aimed at the tourist dollar with many art galleries, smart clothes shop, more wine tastings and plenty of swish up market eateries.