Happy Wanderers

February 18, 2020

Azamara Quest Cape Town to Athens

Pre stay Day 6

Wine Tour

Today we indulged in another fine breakfast before we were picked up for our all-day one tour at 9:00.

Our driver, Bruce, picked us up on time. 5 others were already aboard the minibus. We stopped at the cruise terminal to pick up another couple from Azamara Quest. That is the ship we will be boarding on Thursday. This couple disembarks on Thursday after spending here. They were from a suburb of Seattle. Another couple was from Nelson Bay, Australia. The final 3 we're cousins. A young man and woman from Vienna, Austria were visiting their cousin, who works for Accenture. She just moved to Johannesburg where she has been assigned for 3 years.

Bruce explained that we would visit 4 wineries including a lunch stop. Two of these would be in the Franschhoek region. The remaining two would be in the Stellenbosch region. It would take about two and a half hours to get to the first winery. He pulled away from the cruise terminal and we were on our way.

Sure enough, we arrived at the first stop at 12:30. Here we enjoyed 6 wines paired with cheese.

A small bowl of hibiscus sauce was available for dipping the cheese. We all seemed in agreement that this sauce coupled with the herb coated cheeses made an excellent appetizer.

Each wine was explained. After swirling it and sniffing it we drank some. Then we ate some cheese and drank more of the wine. We were all surprised at the change in wine flavor this created. After making our way through the wines and cheese. We were invited to visit the shop. We would bring our selection back to the wine bar and, if desired, add wines to the purchase. After paying we took our receipts to the wine counter where our selection was boxed and handed to us. The whole process was very efficient. Alice and I purchased a bottle of the hibiscus sauce and a bottle of Broken Barrel, the last red wine we tasted. We agreed it was the smoothest and most full-bodied of the 6 offerings. We look forward to drinking it on our veranda on board Quest.

At this stop, we learned that Mike and Kathy from Washington prefer red wines and have a 900 bottle wine cellar. They travel to wine growing regions and like to ship home cases of wines not available in the US.

The very friendly Australian couple are our age and share our simple tastes. The “youngsters” have eclectic tastes and chose several wines to party with. We all enjoyed this.

As we drove to the second stop, Bruce had us indicate our lunch selections on a menu. He would place the order for lunch after the second winery.

At the second winery, the process was repeated without the cheese. Our moods were mellowing and we purchased less.

For lunch, Alice had a chicken wrap. It was very large and half of it made its way home for our dinner. I had a Malay chicken curry. It came with rice and a small bowl of sambals. I am a fan of Indonesian Sambal. That is a Hilo paste. This sambal was chopped red and green chilies in oil. It was hotter but very good.

After lunch, I commented to Alice that the tour company name was African Story Wine Tours and Bruce’s last name was Story. When we asked him about this he confirmed that this was his company. He has been in business for 15 years and loves what he is doing. He grew up poor and was deaf until the age of 10 when he had surgery to correct his damaged eardrums. He worked at many jobs including as a circus clown before discovering wine. His goal is to educate us about wine while entertaining us with it.

At wineries 3 and 4 we learned more about the grape growing and winemaking processes. We enjoyed the company and had fun with the whole proceeding.

Here is a small selection of the many pictures we took. Don't want to bore you.