South African recommendations requested

T

Thor

Thor Iverson
Wineries, mostly. Restaurants/wine bars in Cape Town and the Stellenbosch/Franschhoek/Paarl areas as well, if anyone has them.

Thanks much for any help that can be provided.

Yixin, you mentioned two in an email I seem to have erased, but were they The Observatory and Sadie Family?
 
Meerlust is worth a visit. Their Rubicon Bordeaux blend is lovely in most years (very old world in style, lots of structure).

Ken Forrester's worth a visit if you're a Chenin Blanc fan - he makes some of the best versions in RSA.

Scali may also be worth a trip - they do some quite interesting Syrahs (although those can be on the big-and-intense side, which is worth noting if you're not a fan of that style).
 
He's the ZA man. Sadie Family and the Observatory are the 2 hot stars, I suppose. The mad French guy in Cape Town is also worth hitting up (I recall we exchanged e-mails about that, too). In Franschhoek Les Quartier Francais is the restaurant with the accolades but locals seem to prefer another one whose name I've forgotten.

When are you going? I might be there for some work towards the start of next year.
 
Where's Parrott?He's the ZA man.
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Ex-. But I've already corresponded with him.

The mad French guy in Cape Town is also worth hitting up (I recall we exchanged e-mails about that, too).
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Yep. Signal Hill, the one with the guy getting amorous with a pig's hindquarters. Can't miss that!

In Franschhoek Les Quartier Francais is the restaurant with the accolades but locals seem to prefer another one whose name I've forgotten.
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Reuben's, maybe?

When are you going?
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Next month.
 
No help as far as Stellenbosch, Franschoek, etc. go, but a few potential ideas:

As far as wine bars go, we stumbled on a place downtown -- if I remember correctly, it was Winesense at Mandela Rhodes Place -- that had at least 50 wines available for tasting in those machines where you push a button and can pour a taste or a whole glass. Tried something like 10 wines there and it seemed to me a pretty good selection. You should be able to find a number of wine bars in the de Waterkant neighborhood, which is a cool place to hang out.

If you spend a day going to the Cape of Good Hope and Boulder's Beach (for the penguins), which you absolutely should, stop in Constantia on the way to or from. We tasted at Groot Constantia, which I thought had some decent if not great wines, and there are several other wineries in the area. Be sure, in at least one direction, to go via Chapman's Peak Drive -- unfortunately, it was closed the day we went but everyone we know who's done it has said it's spectacular.

Another thought would be to go to Hermanus, which is about 60-90 minutes away -- don't know if there's whale watching the time of year you're going, but even if not, that would allow you to visit the wineries around Walker Bay which, from my limited experience, seem to be making some of the most interesting SA wines.

Overall, I'd have to rank Cape Town as one of the two or three most beautiful cities I've ever been to. Just amazing.
 
Winesense is a good chain (oxymoron?) - you can taste the Ernie Els wine there! The Mandela Rhodes outlet is just round the corner from Signal Hill winery.

Hermanus definitely worth a visit - there are some good guys making wine out there. I don't think the Walker Bay guys are quite that hot anymore, but given your interests it's worth visiting both Bouchard-Finlayson and Hamilton Russell to get a sense of what the 2 big boys are doing.

Actually your first stop should be to pick up the Platter guide. Great resource, thimbleful of salt required.

Reuben's, yes.

Too bad I'll still be in China next month.
 
Bruce & Yixin, thanks. We'll probably be renting a car to see the Cape one day while we're in Cape Town, so wine will fit in there somewhere. And penguins, of course. Who doesn't love penguins?

As for Walker Bay, I do like the Hamilton Russell Chardonnay (but not so much the pinot) and the Pinotage & Sauvignon Blanc from their other brand, Southern Right, but it's a matter of allocation of resources and time, and if we go it will probably be from Franschhoek and not Cape Town.

I've had the Platter guide for a while, and it's incredibly useful, though of course one does spend a lot of time sifting through raves about wines that taste like chocolate and coffee. I wish there was a similar guide in each winemaking country (or region).

I don't really expect to be able to avoid goopy New Worldish stuff, but I'd like to avoid the worst abuses. The Els-Engelbrecht wines come to mind here, for some reason...
 
originally posted by Thor:
Who doesn't love penguins?
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The penguins are actually way cool -- it's a natural colony the lives there, not some artificial tourist attraction. In the parking lot, there are signs warning you to look under your car for penguins before you drive off. If the weather's warm enough, you can even go swimming with them (wasn't in our case as we were there in August).

originally posted by Thor:
I don't really expect to be able to avoid goopy New Worldish stuff, but I'd like to avoid the worst abuses.
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The amount of tasting I did there no doubt pales next to what you'll be doing (and of course my palate pales as well), but with my expectations suitably lowered, I found that, overall, they were less goopy than most wines from other non-European countries. It also helps if you drink your red wines with meals as red meat in various forms is often the diet of choice there.

Curiously, one wine that stood out for me there was a cheap Pinot Noir under the generic label of Woolworths, which as you may know is not a five-and-dime store over there but an upscale grocery chain. (A good place to go if you'll be cooking for yourself or going on a picnic.) On the back of the bottle it said the wine was made by Barefoot Wine Company/Catherine Marshall, FWIW. To me, it had real PN character and was not New Worldy at all (at least by comparison to the other wines I had there).

Are you going elsewhere in the country? Kruger or any other game parks?
 
The penguins are actually way cool -- it's a natural colony the lives there, not some artificial tourist attraction. In the parking lot, there are signs warning you to look under your car for penguins before you drive off. If the weather's warm enough, you can even go swimming with them (wasn't in our case as we were there in August).
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We had an experience like that in New Zealand (scroll way down), but it would be fun to repeat.

Curiously, one wine that stood out for me there was a cheap Pinot Noir under the generic label of Woolworths
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Actually, the Platter guide separately reviews the myriad Woolworths bottlings, some very positively, and occasionally as being better than the versions at the wineries that made them for the store. So I'm definitely curious. Maybe a bottle over lunch at the Woolworths food court while in Cape Town...

Are you going elsewhere in the country? Kruger or any other game parks?
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Yeah. 5 nights in Cape Town, 3 nights at Singita Boulders in Kruger, two nights in the Drakensberg Range, two nights in Kwa-Zulu Natal, then the week in wine country. And then bread and water for two months while we pay for it.
 
originally posted by Thor:
5 nights in Cape Town, 3 nights at Singita Boulders in Kruger, two nights in the Drakensberg Range, two nights in Kwa-Zulu Natal, then the week in wine country. And then bread and water for two months while we pay for it.
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Lucky you! After that experience, the bread and water might even taste good. Plus, South Africa's significantly less expensive than Europe and you should find prices in general a bit lower than here. We spent three days in Kruger and it was unbelievable. Just 15 minutes inside the park boundaries, we came across a lioness, just 20 feet from the road, sitting beside a freshly-killed giraffe. Nature in all its gory.

Also, watch out for the baboons (both in Kruger and near the Cape of Good Hope). A friend of ours had the windows open -- a baboon walked up, reached in and stole her backpack.

Blyde River canyon and the Three Rondavels are spectacular, too. (Maybe less so for you compared to New Zealand, but still, quite beautiful.)

Overall, it's simultaneously a wondrous and unbelievably fucked up country. But the natural wonders, the recent history and the people make visiting there a great experience.
 
Just had the 2001 Hamilton Russell pinot noir last night and liked it a lot. My sense is that it needs some age. Is there anything in particular you don't like about the pinot?
 
Bruce: yes, I'm loving the current ZAR/$ trend, which is making this trip a lot less economically torturous. As for the baboons, I've been wary ever since my mother-in-law was punched in the eye by one of their distant primate cousins (not in S.A., in China), but I'll take the warning under extra advisement.

Steve, I have no doubt that I'd like the pinots more with age. Young, they've been overly dense and overwooded for me.
 
originally posted by Thor:
Bruce: yes, I'm loving the current ZAR/$ trend, which is making this trip a lot less economically torturous.
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We were there in the summer of 2007 and at seven Rand to the dollar, prices seemed quite reasonable (especially because we had spent 10 days in Europe before going to SA). Now, it's around 11 to 1? Unbelievable.

I look forward to reading your trip report in 2010!
 
originally posted by Bruce K:
originally posted by Thor:
Who doesn't love penguins?
Click to expand...

The penguins are actually way cool -- it's a natural colony the lives there, not some artificial tourist attraction. In the parking lot, there are signs warning you to look under your car for penguins before you drive off. If the weather's warm enough, you can even go swimming with them (wasn't in our case as we were there in August).

originally posted by Thor:
I don't really expect to be able to avoid goopy New Worldish stuff, but I'd like to avoid the worst abuses.
Click to expand...

The amount of tasting I did there no doubt pales next to what you'll be doing (and of course my palate pales as well), but with my expectations suitably lowered, I found that, overall, they were less goopy than most wines from other non-European countries. It also helps if you drink your red wines with meals as red meat in various forms is often the diet of choice there.

Curiously, one wine that stood out for me there was a cheap Pinot Noir under the generic label of Woolworths, which as you may know is not a five-and-dime store over there but an upscale grocery chain. (A good place to go if you'll be cooking for yourself or going on a picnic.) On the back of the bottle it said the wine was made by Barefoot Wine Company/Catherine Marshall, FWIW. To me, it had real PN character and was not New Worldy at all (at least by comparison to the other wines I had there).

Are you going elsewhere in the country? Kruger or any other game parks?
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Yes, Catherine Marshall at BWC is a must visit. She makes a very nice old-world Syrah as well.
Also in Stellenbosch, go see Vriesenhof and Morgenster, and Avondale in Paarl.
 
We were there in the summer of 2007 and at seven Rand to the dollar, prices seemed quite reasonable (especially because we had spent 10 days in Europe before going to SA). Now, it's around 11 to 1? Unbelievable.
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It is indeed a cheap place, overall. It's too bad the expensive parts of the trip were paid for in dollars, and about six months ago, but oh well...

I look forward to reading your trip report in 2010!
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Far too optimistic.

Bill, thanks for the recs.
 
originally posted by Jeff Grossman:
IndabaI'd be curious to hear your 'take' on a place like this.
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Had a nice pinotage from them once after Apartheid, but you didn't want to hear that.
 
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