I left a few nights open, when planning this trip, for travel between Cape Town and the Garden Route in case we got any suggestions while here. There were near unanimous, enthusiastic and mostly unsolicited recommendations to visit wine country, and specifically the town of Franschhoek.
The drive there traveled inland, away from the coast, while the scenery remained just as beautiful. Wineries tucked in the valley between the Dassenberg mountains covered in the regions unique fynbos flora. We got to take a couple beautiful hikes in the hills above town. One took us through a vineyard - taking me back to Alsace for a moment, except no castle.
Any resemblance to France is no coincidence - the town, whose name means ‘French Corner’ was founded by Huguenots who brought their vine cuttings as they fled persecution, and found a good home for both protestantism and viticulture. There’s a large monument and a handful of French restaurants to remember them by.
The main attraction, at least according to the recommendations, is the Franschhoek Wine Tram, a cute little double-decker hop-on-hop-off train and bus system to many of the local wineries. We bought a pass and had time to stop at three. Two of them were lovely vineyard settings but the middle one turned out to be a rather formulaic, indoor experience. All follow the same system, a bit different from what we are used to - you choose and pay for your tasting from a menu, with no pressure at all to buy a bottle. Many of the options come with food pairings, like oysters, bitterballen, cheese, chocolate, or brownies.
The town itself is typical of a ritzy wine region - boutiques, restaurants, tasting rooms. We didn’t dine out, but we still got to enjoy the ‘food and wine capital’ of the country. Acting again on a recommendation, we took a cooking class just downstairs from our apartment. It was just the two of us, but we got to make no fewer than three main courses, two sides, bread, salad and dessert. They were all South African recipes and I definitely plan to make some of those to share with friends and family!
All in all I enjoyed Franschhoek. It’s a little touristy, posh, not too pretentious, but for someone who used to frequent Sonoma, maybe a little overblown. With all the fine dining, we were happy with the feast we made together that afternoon, and those we cooked on the braai on our adorable balcony. It made a great stop before heading east on the Garden Route.
