Stellenbosch

Last night we told our host we wanted an early breakfast because we were headed to Stellenbosch today. He insisted that 8:30 would be early enough, because the wineries would open at 10:00 and it's 45 minutes away. A little research proved that at least some of the wineries opened at 9:00, but breakfast was served at 8:30 (a fine breakfast with fruit, eggs, bacon, croissants, toast, tea, and coffee). So we left the lodge at 9:15 and arrived at the first winery around 10:30 - only to discover that this winery had opened at 8:30. Two hours of valuable wine tasting time, lost!

It was a beautiful day, and the mountains around the winelands were beautiful. Out first stop was Fairview, near Paarl. Fairview also makes cheeses, including goat cheese, and we were pleased to find goats and a goat tower on the premises. Americans will know this winery, because this is the origin of "Goats do Roam" wines, about 1 million bottles of which are exported to North America each year. We bought some cheese, bread, and wine and headed to Franschhoek for our next winery, Chamonix. This winery was much smaller and completely different in character.

We didn't plan our route as carefully as we might have, but we decided to head back toward Paarl to visit some specific wineries north of Stellenbosch.  In the car we enjoyed a lunch of apples and delicious bread with tomato-basil goat cheese. It was delicious, and the scenic views made for a wonderful drive. All the traveling, plus a few sit-down tastings, allowed us to visit only five wineries. The others were Warwick, Villiera, and Tokara. Tokara was an amazing estate, part way up the Simonsburg Mountains with an amazing view of Stellenbosch below and Table Mountain in the distance. Tokara also grows olives and makes olive oil. The U.S. v. Algeria match began just as we arrived at Tokara, so Gywen stayed in the car to listen on the radio.

We tried to go next door to Thelema just before closing, but they had already locked the doors by the time we arrived. Since we were done with wineries for the day, we drove down into Stellenbosch to have dinner and watch the second half of the U.S. match. There was some disagreement in the restaurant about whether we should watch the England game or the U.S. game, but the U.S. won out (of course!). Dinner was great, but the entertainment was even better. We were thrilled when Landon Donovan scored the winning goal in the third minute of overage. Following the game, we returned to Haut Bay to watch the Ghana v. Germany game, blog, and plan for tomorrow. (Boo, Germany!)