Continuing my earlier blog on interesting excursions from Cape Town…

How about a mellow sybaritic private champagne tour enjoying the champagne and characters of the Cape Winelands. You travel to one of the original wine estates in the Franschhoek valley granted to the French Huguenots back in the 17th century for a memorable champagne cellar tour given by the eccentric globe-trotting owner and winemaker, Achim von Arnim. Achim’s passion for his region, his wine farm and his champagne is infectious. You’ll not escape without experiencing the whole fountain of house ‘bubblies’. Achim often calls for volunteers to assist him with ‘sabrage’ when the champagnes are elaborately opened with a sabre! After a tour of his cellars you have a leisurely gourmet lunch followed by a winelands meander… or a siesta, depending on how good the lunch was! We offer this tour every Saturday returning to Cape Town sometime in the afternoon depending on how many wines you wish to sample…

Another great culinary experience is our private cheese, wine and chocolate tour. Enjoy a day that celebrates the culinary delights of the Cape’s oldest wine region with a delicious and wicked mix of cheese, wine and chocolate tasting. Highlights of the day include a cheese tasting at two estates that produce delicious premium cheeses; chocolate tasting at a specialist chocolatier in the lovely town of Franschhoek or at one of the Cape’s top wine estates where the wine-maker has collaborated with a Belgian chocolatier to concoct the prefect chocolates to complement his wines. Afterwards we enjoy a relaxed gourmet lunch at a top Winelands restaurant as well as a scenic meander through the picturesque wine regions back to Cape Town.

It’s a little known fact that South African olive oil has once again walked off as winner of the most prestigious olive oil awards in Italy. We offer a great off-the-beaten-track olive and vine tour which is perfect if you have a little bit more time to get to know and savour the more rural vineyards, villages and farms of the Cape. One tour visits the Cape’s oldest wine region of Stellenbosch. We spend some time at the award-winning Morgenster wine estate for an olive oil, olive and wine tasting. Morgenster is rated as one of the top olive oil estates in the world and the tour is a little gem. This is followed by a visit to Vergelegen, one of the oldest Cape Dutch homesteads, for a walk in their beautiful gardens, a visit to the homestead and a taste of their award-winning wines. An optional extra is to pre-book for a fascinating tour of their spectacular gravity fed cellar. The wine and olive-tasting is complemented by a short historical tour of Stellenbosch – the second oldest town in South Africa and certainly one of the most beautiful and of course a gourmet lunch at a top Winelands restaurant. An alternative tour visits a stunning off-the-beaten track wine region, the Darling and Riebeeck Valley area where you enjoy the warm country hospitality of the local people. This small secluded valley is mad about olives and olive oil and you participate in two olive and olive oil tastings as well as wine and port tasting at the famous Allesverloren Wine estate. This is all washed down with a delicious and relaxed country lunch.

If you don’t mind travelling a little further afield, we recommend our private seafood and Rooibos tour. This is a (very) full day excursion north through the wheatfields of the Swartland to the magnificent Cedarberg mountains to visit a working Rooibos tea plantation where you learn about the farming methods of Rooibos and see the drying fields and packing plant. This tour also explores the indigenous Fynbos vegetation in the area. Afterwards you head to a rustic seafood beach restaurant for a relaxing afternoon of seafood before returning to Cape Town.

Finally … for something completely different we offer a private crayfish tour. This is a fascinating way to enjoy the truly unique Cape experience of catching your own crayfish with local fishermen whilst also helping to keep this vibrant community afloat, literally.  During Cape Town’s crayfish season (15 Nov to 31 Jan), two people can join a local fishing boat to experience the life of a Cape fisherman. You are collected from your hotel and transferred to Kommetjie on the Cape Peninsula for the start of the fishing outing catching the crayfish in nets (usually two hours). At the end you walk away with two crayfish and the fishermen have gained some vital extra income to support their families. Afterwards you head to a local Cape Town villa with your guide where you cook your own crayfish for lunch and enjoy a simple lunch of crayfish, salad, garlic bread and crisp white wine. There are four boats involved so up to 8 people can be accommodated. Remember that you must have good sea legs as the waters can be rough!

This entry was posted on Monday, June 11th, 2007 at 10:00 am and is filed under Excursions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.