Day 19

Day nineteen
Tuesday 4th February 2020
Current position
The Black Horse Accommodation
15 Mark Street
Stellenbosch Central
Stellenbosch
7600
South Africa
S 33°56.34384'
E 18°51.27594'

Today we had a disappointing tour of a winery. Unfortunately when we arrived there were two or three tours with around a dozen people in each. Of course Ros and I arrived under own steam by Uber. The man on reception casually pointed outside saying wait over there. We sat at a table in the shade of some olive trees and watched while a girl served glasses of wine to the tours giving them information as she poured. Eventually she made her way to us and begrudgingly splashed a modicum of wine into
two large glasses asking if we'd like to partake in the tasting and we said yes but after the tour and with that she disappeared and we were told no more.
Ten minutes later she started the tour and we followed in the wake of the others to the machination plant where the grapes arrive and start their journey to the large stainless steel vats. Firstly they are tipped into a hopper and crushed into a liquid stew by an Archimedes' screw which transports the liquid pulp into the vats where it starts the fermentation process and the solids fall to the bottom. After a time the liquid is drawn off into oak barrels where the fermentation continues until the wine is ready for bottling. We had a quick look at the bottling plant a five minute explanatory video and that was it the tour was over. The guide was hopeless as she ran through the whole process like a gabbling parrot with no interest whatsoever as she'd obviously done it a thousand times before.
Back at our table we were ignored yet again until she finally deemed to asked if we'd like to taste the wines we agreed saying yes but we'd also like a cheese platter as well as shown in Ros' guide. Again time passed before she returned with an unpriced menu which she left on the table. It was at this point we thought it was best to bail out as the tour up until now had been free and we have learned over time that if things start out badly they generally don't get any better. She seemed genuinely surprised that we said we felt that we hadn't been treated properly but hey ho we left and got an Uber to Bergkelder Fleur du Kap a much larger wine producer. We booked onto their tour and tasting that took place in their large underground cellar. We were the only two until a Singaporean couple joined us with their private driver and private tour operator. Wow they travel in style. They used to make wine on site but the operation outgrew the facility and is now carried out elsewhere. The now unused plant was huge and much larger than the first place we'd visited.
She was a much better guide and was very informative. The huge underground cellar had been hewn out of the solid rock in the 1960's and was designed to keep the fermenting wine at a steady temperature of around 14-16 celcius. Once underground the wine tasting began first a white then another white which had been filtered to remove the minute particles of sediment. The latter was not as full bodied as the first. Our guides description of the wines was spot on as she described the flavour as dry with a hint of asparagus etc etc. We then moved on to the reds with every part glass the Singaporeans became more chatty and by the pudding wine we were good buddies. I said to our guide that by the end of her tour everyone must be very happy. We certainly were. Ros was so happy that on the way back to the visitor centre she tripped over a small speed hump on the path and fell face down with a thud just as she'd done on the uneven path in Guatemala last year. Still amazingly she only suffered some tiny grazes a few bruises and fortunately no broken bones just some more dented pride. Back at the visitors centre we were sad to say goodbye to the Singaporean couple as they were good fun. We have missed meeting other travellers on this trip as it seems our paths are not destined to cross. Probably that's down to lack of public transport Uber's a rental car and no real backpacker hostels.
Still it was an Uber that got us back to a shopping mall in town where we had a late lunch to soak up the alcohol. The other problem with having a car is that we have not got used to walking in the heat as we've had air-conditioned luxury but tomorrow this will stop as we give up the car and head for the streets of Cape Town.
In the evening we found a small Italian restaurant run by a young Englishman who emigrated from England two and a half years ago. He seems to be doing well as his restaurant was full but fortunately for us he managed to squeeze us in.