Winelands Tour via Marinda’s Party Bus

I look forward all year long to Winefest, so naturally, when I discovered that South Africa was full of vineyards, I began looking forward to touring them.  Mark wasn’t interested, and I don’t love drinking alone, so I found two fellow wine fans to book the tour with, Michael and Joel.  When Marinda, our strawberry- haired tour guide, pulled up to the Blue Mountain Backpackers Hostel at 8:30am, she was full of spunk.  She said something to the effect of, “Let’s go have some fun!” and ushered us into her party van with the other tourists: a Peace Corps volunteer from CA, an ozzy, a Texan who currently resides in Italy, a Canadian from Edmonton, and a German.  The music cranked up, and everyone got to talking straight out the gate.

 There were 5 stops: 4 vineyards and lunch.  The first vineyard was delicious and classy.  The glasses were laid out for us at a private table behind a glass wall near the holding tanks; it was there that Marinda instructed us on how to properly taste wine by aerating it in our mouth and tipping the head forward to swallow.  Also, she showed us how to inspect the clarity of the wine.  From there, we set out to taste five or six samples inside the formal stone tasting room.  We paired them with unbelievable Brie, blue, and goat cheeses.  I can’t remember the name of the cheese that I loved so much, choco-something, but it tasted like cream cheese rolled in a salty layer of Mexican carne asada spices with a hint of cumin.  Unfortunately, at the end of the day I forgot my cheese in the van’s cooler.

The second stop had crappy-tasting wine, but gorgeous outdoor setting and interesting stories (for example: the owner murdered his neighbor).  The vineyard uses 1/3 of the profits as a trust fund to support the workers’ health care, university, and housing/utilities.  After our tasting, Marinda brought out a glass bowl with numbers inside to pair up couples for body shots.  Yes, far from the classy and sophisticated tours you may have heard about, our tour offered body shots of cider wine off a picnic table.

 

By lunchtime we were fully revved, dancing in the party bus between tastings.  Our lunch menu contained a variety of appetizing dishes.  I chose the spicy Asian chicken stir fry with slivered vegetables, cashews, and noodles.  By the end of the meal, we were starting to fade, and I was ready for a hammock, but we pressed on to the third vineyard which was beautifully nestled in the mountains.  It was full of striking metal artwork, and the tastings included my new favorite wine, Pinot Tag, a red that is totally unique to South Africa.

 

The fourth vineyard had a much smaller, home-style tasting room, and was very low-key.  We took a tour of the holding tanks and got lessons on the wine process: aging, yeast, fermentation, pressing, etc.  It was hot, humid, and sticky.  The featured wine variety at the fourth vineyard was Brut, a dry sparkling wine, not technically Champagne because it’s from SA, so instead it’s called Cap Classic.

It was loads of fun.  If you enjoy wine and are in Cape Town, I totally recommend the wine tour via Marinda’s party bus.  You can access her information via: http://www.africanstorytours.com/