Category: South Africa

I have to preface this post by saying that I hope you all get the chance to visit this place at some point in your life. Pretty amazing.

Last Friday night we (Reidruffs) headed to Franschhoek for some wine tasting and a night at the La Residence. A colleague of mine, Andrea, had mentioned that this place is amazing. She had firsthand experience given the fact that her boyfriend, Nick, works there. I was not skeptical and was really just looking forward to it.

Our arrival was greeted with 5+ smiling faces, waving hello to us as we drove through the gate. What? Upon alighting, a glass of bubbly wine was placed in our hands and the girls were given mini bouquets of flowers. I could get used to this. We were amazed at the decore and the scenery in front of us. Here’s what we saw:






I believe I was asked to be pinched multiple times to wake up from the dream I was in. But wait, there’s more. Andrea had mentioned that we wouldn’t want to leave our rooms once we arrived and I believe she was right. Each room is uniquely decorated for the 40 max guests a night. Shan and I had the Armani room. The thing that is so unique about the place is not only the extravagance of the rooms, but the size of the bathroom as well. Again, I’ll let the pictures do the talking:






We spent the rest of the day enjoying the pool, the scenery and a great dinner with our host, Evan. Please be sure and keep an eye out for Evan as he is full of wine knowledge. He made our dinner a memorable one. Thank you to Nick for arranging.

Saturday kicked off the weekend in wine country. Destination: Stellenbosch. Mission: Drink and Be Merry.

Our friends, Tom and Gabby, came around our place at 11am and we headed off east. 45 minutes away and we were there. Yep, it’s that close. Can we please move here already? We checked into our Life & Leisure guesthouse and set off for food and wine. We stopped in Wijnhuis for lunch. Easily top 5 bread I’ve ever had in my life. I live for those moments where something is so good you can list it in your top 5. Probably why I like to travel so much.

Post lunch was a stop by the Brampton Wine Studio for a tasting as we waited for our driver to arrive at 2pm. We were served our 3 wines slowly as the driver arrived. He honked. We acknowledged him. Tom got up and told him we were waiting on the bill and we’d be there in a minute. Literally a minute went by and the driver honked again. Mind you, we had arranged a private driver to take us to 4 wineries with no expectation of timing. What’s the rush? Turns out there were two others in the car and they were waiting on us. We got the bill, downed our final glass and we were off.

First stop, Glenelly. A chic, modern building with an almost sterile feel to it. The wines were very good. The scenery was amazing.

Next stop, Knorhoek. A nice secluded winery amongst some trees. Again, amazing place to spend an afternoon. They even have a guesthouse to stay in. Mental note. More wine was enjoyed despite a somewhat grumpy server. Tom and Gabby declared the cheap wine so tasty they bought a whole case for 250 Rand (roughly $30). More sober tastebuds may prove otherwise; however, I still declare it a steal.

Next desired stop, Quoin Rock winery. I say desired because it was closed.

Next real stop, Meratie. No tasting, but they were happy to sell us a couple of bottles. Nice picnic tables with rolling hills of vineyards; ok!

Next stop, Peter Faulk. I’m glad the other place was closed. Sure we were told they weren’t serving anymore, but cooler heads prevailed. Note to all you travelers, if they say it closes at 7pm, it actually closes at 6pm. I’m still failing to see the logic here, but nevertheless we were able to secure ourselves at least a full glass of wine. The joy of this place was the lawn full of giant bean bag cheds. Yep, it’s my new word: ched (chair + bed). Moving along. We enjoyed the sunset and view for about an hour and contemplated life and why we live in places that don’t look like this.

I declared this day a success.