8 February The finer things in life

Franschoek church

Our pre dinner aperitif last night was a glass of MCC. To a Brit MCC is synonymous with Middlesex Cricket Clubs, all known as Lords. In South African wine parlance MCC is Methode Cap Champenoise. The same method as French champagne.

The wine was so fine we had to find the source of the amusingly named Miss Molly Bubbly. The vineyard was Môreson on the outskirts of Franschoek village where we discovered who is the eponymous Mis Molly. She's a Weimerraner guide dog for the blind who belongs to the owners. Miss Molly wine was designed to reflect her fun character and passion for life. We didn't meet her, but we did buy the Molly Bubbly and a 'special' bottle of pink bubbles. In sterling terms the wines were £6 and £10 respectively which we think represents VGV (very good value).

We came out of Môreson's gate and crossed the road in to La Motte, one of the large estates with historic house, gardens, restaurant and fine wine tastings. Although the tasting rooms published prices of around R20 to R50 (£1.25 to £3) for five tastings we were never charged and always treated warmly by the enthusiastic and knowledgeable staff.

La Motte winery

In the La Motte house I spent a quiet hour wandering around an art exhibition, the gardens and I looked in to their tasting room which looked so formal and high end I didn't stay to taste.

There was time for one more winery visit before we began the journey home. The red wines at Stony Brook were lovely, but I felt we had enough good stuff to drink before the non ideal storage conditions of a yacht ruined them. Thereafter we'll be back to the quaffable Chateau Casque du Cardboard.

On our journey back to Hout Bay we passed through the fruit growing district of South Africa, home of Cape fruit, and the main reservoir for Cape Town.  The reservoir is now a dust bowl at less than 10% capacity.

Cape Town reservoir reduced to a dust bowl

This is the third year of drought in the Cape and water levels are at critical.   Everyone has been asked to reduce their personal water usage to less than 50 litres per day (which would be a luxury for most cruising boats) or face having running supplies turned off and stand pipe collection points introduced.