It was so nice to wake up to a warm room and even nicer to find a tasty breakfast buffet with a roaring fire warmed dining room. Yvonne judged her omelette to be one of the best since travelling.
Our plan for today was to visit some of the many vineyards in the Franschhoek area in search of some more tasty wines. As it was still early we took a stroll up and down the main street on the sunshine looking in some of the windows with Yvonne lingering for some time outside a diamond shop dropping not so gentle hints to Glenn.
On the way out we’d passed a microbrewery called Tuk Tuk which reminded us of our Asia travels and with happy thoughts we decided to start our day with some beer samples. The swish bar area was all wood, glass and stainless steel with rows of highly polished fermentation vessels on display at the back. One the many bar staff showed us the catalogue of beers and to our surprise we found we had to pay for our samples - definitely not on. To make matters worse we disliked the beers we tried so much that we didn’t even finish the 100 ml samples. We are beginning to long for some warm, dark English ale.
Trying to decide where to go first on our wine tour we recognised Leopard's Leap as a wine available in the UK so went there. Entering the large, modern glass and steel building we arrived at the long tasting bar with its rows of neatly stacked glasses to be greeted by another friendly barman and the news that we would have to pay for samples here as well. Once again we were disappointed by all of them so left somewhat dispirited.
In the car park Yvonne had a chat with the Wine Tour Tram driver who mentioned that he had just left the Chamonix vineyard so it should be quiet there. We excitedly decided this would be a most relevant vineyard to visit, with the skiing connection, and looked forward to visiting this tasting room. We found the estate entrance easily enough but drove right around the estate through acres of vines before finding the tasting room. Opening the traditional heavy oak panelled doors we stepped inside the cosy, fire warmed room, very reminiscent of many of the mountain ski pit stops we frequent. The waitress gave us a list of the wines to examine but promptly arrived with a sample of her choosing. As we finished the unimpressive Sav Blanc the waitress arrived with another sample from the reserve range that tasted a little better. Before she could return with another Glenn remarked that we would like to taste some wines of our choosing and at last she waited for our selections before bringing us the next samples. Again we had to pay and again, while better than the Leopard, none were especially tasty and to further dampen our spirits thick clouds now covered the sky.
By now there was only one thing on Glenn’s mind, food. During our walk up Main road we’d noticed the old station had been converted to a pub with an enticing food sign outside. The fayre was not of Tokara standard but it was tasty pub nosh and washed down with a couple of interesting beers, one with a pumpkin flavour, whilst watching a replay of the England v Wales game on large TVs.
Slightly deterred by our lack of success on the wine front and now full of gassy beer, we returned to our cosy room where Yvonne watched more of the French open tennis and Glenn made some more reservations for the forthcoming days. At least we are having success booking some interesting accommodation for our Namibia trip while having a decent internet service here.
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| Franschhoek's main street... |
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| ... with its delightful church... |
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| ...and microbrewery. |
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| The ostentatious entrance to Leopards Leap vineyard |
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| The clouds pouring over the mountains in the afternoon |
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