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Post date: Jul 10, 2010 9:58:56 PM
Day 7 saw us up bright and early to go
explore the wine town of Franschhoek. It is said like "Fran shook." It is surrounded by wineries and has a walkable shopping district. We passed by a place that advertised "pancakes" on its clapboard, so we decided to drop in and see if indeed, they sold what we viewed as pancakes. It wasn't quite a pancake in the traditional sense - more like a crepe, but it was pretty good nonetheless.
The restaurant also served as an art gallery - very much the kitschy thing that I would have imagined seeing in Charlottesville, Berkeley, or any other college town. It probably would have fit in well in New York City as well. All in all, we had such a good experience that we would wind up going back there the next morning.
Next, after breakfast, we went to La Motte Winery. La Motte, like many other places that we'd been in South Africa, was celebrating the World Cup, with tables "dedicated" to each country represented in the competition. The winery offered tastings of whites, reds, or all wines offered, depending on what your tastes were and how much you wanted to pay. I chose the white, Lee chose the red, and Janie and Carla chose the entire set. The Shiraz was believed by our group to be the best wine offered by La Motte, and it has set Janie off on a quest to find La Motte Shiraz in Charlottesville.
After doing tasting at La Motte, we tried to go to several wineries, but given that we were attempting to do tastings on a Saturday and that it was winter, many of the wineries were closed. As a reminder, South African winters are on the opposite schedule as winters in the United States, so it's winter there during our summer months.
Eventually, while enjoying our drive and the scenery that we were getting to see, we wanted to get to an open winery. We knew that Graham Beck was open, and given our love of Mr. Beck and his products, we decided to go ahead and head over there and do a tasting. To celebrate the
World Cup, Graham Beck was offering everyone who came in for a tasting a complimentary glass of the Brut (cap classique) champagne. Lee decided on the full wine tasting and Carla, Janie, and I did the champagne tasting. We all agreed that the Reserve was amazing, and so was the chenin blanc - Gamekeeper Reserve. Surprisingly, the Gamekeeper Reserve was only 50 rand, or about $6.75. We'd had it the night before at dinner and bought another bottle. If anyone knows where we can find it in Charlottesville, please let us know!
While we were doing the tasting, we met several interesting people. We met Christopher, a banker with Standard Chartered in Dubai, and his friends. We also met Ciska and Lauren, and wound up inviting them back to our house for drinks. They stayed for a couple of hours and we had great conversations and laughs and thoroughly enjoyed spending time with them. Good luck to Lauren on her upcoming wedding!
Afterwards, we did dinner at a French restaurant, and while eating dinner, heard that Ghana had scored on the U.S., so in a panic, we wolfed down our dinner and headed back to the house to watch the game. While the U.S. found an equalizer, the defense was not able to hold Ghana in extra time, and the U.S. was sent out in the round of 16 to the joy of much of Africa. While disappointed with the outcome, we were philosophical; at least our loss kept the African dream alive.
The other good thing about the game was that subsequently, we were able to dub Carla a Carlos Bocanegra fangirl.
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