This slideshow requires JavaScript.
After another breakfast in the vineyards, our first winery of the day was Tokara (www.tokara.com). The estate was beautiful…we are noticing there has been a lot of money going into these Winery estates. They seem state of the art with great open spaces for tasting, restaurants, views and gardens. Tokara was no different…they had a huge area to see their wine tanks/barrels…and some cool art work in the front of the building. We tasted their wines and asked questions as we took tasting notes. Surprisingly, we found ourselves liking another white…it was the Late Harvest Sav Blanc, 2010.
Next up was Thelema (www.thelema.co.za) Mountain Vineyard. Again, as we drove through wine country the scenery was really just breath-taking. Thelema was known for their reds which we were excited about. After tasting their wines, we decided we really liked the Thelema Cab, 2008 but also they had a wine called, “The Mint” which was a 2009 cabernet…the grapes grew near Eucalyptus Trees which gave a hint of mint to the red wine. We tasted it and definitely tasted the mint, which was something we hadn’t experienced before. Our favorite white there was the Sutherland Viognier Roussanne, 2009. We had a good time chatting with the people working there about their wines…it was nice to find some reds we liked.
As we drove down the long gravel farm road to Oldenburg Winery, (www.oldenburgvineyards.com) we literally pulled over to take pictures…gorgeous vineyards for miles on rolling hills with mountains in the background and a layer of fog lingering. The Estate was beautiful and had a great patio overlooking their vines while drinking their wine. We chatted with the women who was so nice and told us a bit about the area while pouring her wines for us. She also taught us a phrase in Afrikaans (the common language in South Africa) which is, Dankie, dit was baie lekker-Thank you, it was very nice. She also talked with us a bit about how the government was taking property back from the current owners to “re-distribute” the wealth…she said it was not going so well…a lot of politics and resentment. The white wines we were tasting were the winners…Chenin Blanc, 2011 and the Chardonnay, 2010. We told her we were finding out how great the whites were here in South Africa but in general were still looking for great reds. The property next door was a small wine farm called Rainbows End (www.rainbowsend.co.za) but because it is so small…only does tastings by appointment. She called them for us and luckily one of the girls who usually does the office work said she could do an informal tasting for us…we of course said yes please.
We drove down the gravel road, literally in the middle of the vines so happy to be where we were in the world and saw a girl jump in a pick up truck and pointed to us to follow her…we did and finally arrived at a barn-like building. We got out and she opened the barn to have us peak in at their stainless steel tanks, she explained their wine making prices before we all continued driving a bit more to another small building. The little building had about 20-30 barrels full of wine with an air conditioning unit in place to mimic the temperature of a wine cellar. Because the door had a little crack at the top…it was uneven with the frame, she tucked in a thick blanket or coat to cover the crack and keep the cool air inside…classic. We walked through the garden and up to the deck where she opened quite a few bottles of red…they didn’t even make whites. We tasted the reds which were on the warm side…it was hard to tell if they were any good because hot red wine is not so appetizing. We bought the Shiraz, 2010 and decided once it was refrigerated…maybe it will be a good one.
We were told how great the La Motte Wine Estate (www.la-motte.com) was so made our way over there to see the gorgeous property…very elegant. It had huge white historic buildings…a restaurant, large wine cellar and big tasting room. After walking through their barrel room, we sat at a table which was set up for tasting and sipped on our wines as the guy working their talked to us about how their wines were made. Our favorite was the La Motte Millennium Shiraz, 2009. We bought our bottle and walked back through the garden area stopping to take a picture of a really cool fountain with the tall mountains behind it…
For dinner, we stopped in the town of Franschhoek which was the region we were in all day…it had a cute little town full of shops and restaurants. We actually stopped at the doctor’s office while we were there to ask for more malaria pills. We will soon be going on our safari and realized we didn’t have enough pills for both of us. The doctor was super nice and after asking a couple questions…wrote a prescription to cover both os us. We saw a little bar/restaurant with people sitting at the few tables outside near the doctor’s office and thought it looked good. We ordered a pizza and realized as we were sitting there that the food would probably not be good…and it wasn’t. We should have gone somewhere else but were super hungry after wine tasting all day, so settled for basic bad bar food.
After dinner, we drove back to Stellenbosch where we were staying and settled in for the evening. We have to be up early tomorrow to get over to Cape Town.
Like this:
Like Loading...
Published by Brandey Kabat
What I like: Dark chocolate, yoga, fresh squeezed juice, laughing, hiking, wine, travel, food, lush products, being warm, having long hair, the ritual of drinking something hot first thing in the morning…
What I don’t like: When people smell their fingers, pushing elevator buttons, confrontational situations, not being able to fall asleep quickly at bedtime…
Most random job ever: Plastic surgery consultant
As for my love life: I met my husband mid way through my junior year in college, as soon as I laid my eyes on him I was attracted to him. In fact, I made the first move which was a bit out of character but there was something about him…probably the fact that he was smokin’ hot!!
Where from and where to: I grew up in NY, went to college at The Ohio State University and then headed to CA after graduation. My boyfriend (Giff) and I had a map, a borrowed van and used stuff from his mom’s basement aka a vacuum, silverware, old Christmas ornaments etc., and about $1000 each. We thought it would be a good idea to head straight to CA since neither of us had been. Being we didn’t know anyone there nor did we have a job or job interviews set up or a place to live…I would say we did it the hard way! However with a bit of help from Giff’s mom who flew out to put us up in a hotel, bought me a suit for interviewing and co-signed a lease to get us a place to live we eventually found jobs and an apartment and have been in CA for 10 years.
Our story: After moving out to CA and living together for about 3 years we got engaged. He popped the question while down on one knee on the beach at sunset after we finished our picnic he had packed of bread, cheese, shrimp cocktail and wine. He even had the ring in a box that had a light shining down on it when opened so as it was getting dark, this amazing man was asking me to be his wife as he handed me a huge rock…Yes! Yes! Yes!
In 2005 we were married (I am biased but our wedding was absolutely amazing). By the end of 2005 we were new home owners. 2006-2009- we were both happily married, attached to our 3 cats and were focused on building our careers.
Giff and I got pregnant mid year 2009 with our first baby but what should have been one of the highlights of our life was soon distracted by the news I received at the doctor’s office.
The lump in my breast that had been dismissed the year before as nothing was now being diagnosed by a different doctor as breast cancer. Thankfully Giff is a persistent person and when we went in for our ultrasound (to hear our baby’s heartbeat) he brought up the request for testing to be done on the lump rather than dismissing it based on feeling it.
The going gets rough: Things began to move so quickly at that point, it was hard to breathe. I was 30, pregnant with my first child and going into surgery to remove breast cancer. I was about to go through what would be the worst year of my life. The plan had been discussed, we were going with the most aggressive regimen possible- double mastectomy, port surgically placed in my chest, chemotherapy, drug therapy and radiation. We also had to terminate the pregnancy. This cancer was estrogen positive and the hormones were actually feeding the cancer. That little angel whom was the cause of our going into the doctor saved my life.
Giff was my rock through every step…interviewing a team of the best doctors, memorizing which medicines I needed to take and when, driving me to chemotherapy and sitting next to me while I was so scared, telling me I was beautiful when I was bald, and so many other things…words cannot express. When you say your vows, in sickness and in health…you would never guess sickness of this magnitude at this age would be in the near future. In addition to this hardship, Giff’s dad died of a complicated prostate cancer the day we came home from my surgery. I could not hold my husband as he mourned for his dad because of the pain I was in from the mastectomy. How did Giff handle all of this pain at one time? How was he so strong for me? He is amazing. Giff’s dad was one of those people whom you naturally wanted to be around…his smile was contagious, his love for life was invigorating and he listened so intently when you talked in a conversation with him. He made you feel special. We think about him often and will miss him so much.
My family and friends were also by my side…my mom flying out from NY several times to help us with cooking and cleaning and holding my hand. It must be one of the most awful things in the world to watch your baby girl be diagnosed with breast cancer. My girlfriends also flew out to take care of me and help with anything they could. Other friends living closer would come by just to sit and talk or watch movies. There were so many cards, letters, flowers, cookies, and other gifts that came from all over the country. It’s amazing to have such great people in my life. In addition to my amazing circle of friends and family, there were the strangers with whom crossed our path. Whether it was a letter in the mail from a breast cancer survivor, the anesthesiologist who called Giff during my surgery crying happy tears that the cancer had not spread to my lymph nodes, or our fertility doctor who promised to watch over our frozen embryos as if they were her own. There were so many small gestures that made such a big impact on our lives.
Looking at the bright side: Thankfully this was caught in stage 1, had it been caught a year prior by the first doctor I had gone into about the lump, it may have been caught at stage 0. Please learn from my lesson…insist the lump be tested – a lump cannot be diagnosed by touch. They were able to cut all the cancer out and after I finish the entire regimen including a pill I take over the next 5 years, they said there is a 95% chance the cancer will never come back.
Our exciting future: We’ve decided to re-prioritize, we are taking 400 days starting February 7th of 2011 to travel the world! We will travel to new places, eat new foods, taste new wines and meet new people. We will focus on healing ourselves both physically and mentally. This will be one of the best years of our lives.
View all posts by Brandey Kabat
Spinning Around The World 