Stellenbosch Wineries

We took a 1-day Winery tour of the Stellenbosch Valley, located about an hour outside Cape Town. Stellenbosch is the top producing wine region in South America and the Viticulture program at Stellenbosch University is where many get their training. We had a fabulous guide who picked us up at our hotel and took us around to 6 distinctly different wineries. We started the day with beautiful weather and it ended with monkeys and a hail storm... :)

We learned that every single vine is actually GRAFTED: the roots are American and the leaves are South African. A bug called Phyloxera devastated the wine plants many years ago and they found out that this bug doesn't effect American roots, hence the graft.

Pinotage is a red wine grape that is South Africa's signature variety. It's a cross between pinot noir and hermitage.

The boys found a giant bottle of wine.

We were admiring a monkey family in the vineyard and the next thing we knew, giant baseball sized hail was coming down!

 

2 years ago: Hodge Podge

1 year ago: May Flowers