We didn’t have to leave Stellenbosch until almost 11, so we took advantage of our freedom to wander around town a little bit and do a little shopping. And then it was off to our final wine tasting of the pre-trip at the Waterford Estate. The weather was still iffy, but we made do.

I liked this idea for reusing corks.

We were seated and our host, Dylan, poured the first three wines.

They call their tasting the SALT experience. It took place in two phases – the first paired three wines with small bites (salmon, beef teriyaki, and a pear tart), and the second paired three wines with various chocolates. It was interesting, pleasant, and I managed to restrain myself from buying any chocolate. Instead, we ordered wine to be shipped home (their shipping was MUCH more reasonable than Boschendal’s – $20 for four bottles instead of at least $100).

Waterford has some wildlife on their property – or at least some geese, and we couldn’t resist another photo. It’s much easier to like geese when you’re not living near them.

We left Waterford well-satisfied and returned to the bus for the trip back to Cape Town and the Cape Grace Hotel. We finally got to see the local mountains, Helderberg behind the main building and Simonsberg while we were driving.

Not everyone in South Africa is living well – we passed “informal housing” on the road, where people are jammed cheek by jowl. They have satellite dishes and electricity, but not officially.

Our hotel is at the V&A Waterfront, which, in addition to being a tourist area, is still a working waterfront, complete with dry dock.

The view from our room is very pleasant; once more, we did not make it to the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary African Art.

There are rhinos all over the Waterfront to raise awareness of poaching and the threats to the species.

We went into the Watershed building with our friend Wendy – she took us to “Leather Pyrography” and showed us the piece they’d bought to have shipped home. The artist was hard at work on his next creation.

We met our Tour Director, Delia, who will take us through the next phases of the trip. Tomorrow morning, we go to the Cape of Good Hope – so much for sleeping late!

It rained all day today; fortunately, we spent most of the day in wineries enjoying a different kind of liquid.

Our day started at Cavalli Wine Estate; it’s an interesting place. The owners are interested in horses, art, and wine – all of the wines have horsey names (like Colt Cabernet Sauvignon), there’s an art gallery on premises, and of course there’s wine.

We tasted six wines at Cavalli, and I have to say we weren’t particularly impressed by any of them. The Unoaked Chenin Blanc and the Colt Cabernet Sauvignon were the best, and I’d happily drink either, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to find them.

The tasting room was surrounded by cellars containing wines for their restaurant (all their own label), as well as a room with the owners’ collection. They’re into big bottles.

The art gallery was interesting – the art was quite modern, in keeping with everything else on the property.

From Cavalli, we drove half-an-hour through Stellenbosch to Boschendal Wine Estate (founded in 1685, so it’s a newcomer compared to Groot Constantia, but still quite well-established by my standards) for lunch and more wine tasting. Much more.

We were lucky and there was a break in the rain as we walked to the Werf Restaurant. Our guide, Mark, explained that in Dutch times, one of the few permissible signs of wealth was the gable over the doors – a flamboyant gable with lots of decoration proclaimed that the owners were in the one percent.

The original plan was to eat outside, but the weather made that infeasible. Instead, we had the wine from the Picnic Under the Oaks tasting combined with the food from the Sharing Plates Menu.

I’ll let the photos of the wines speak for themselves – all of the wines were very good; the whites cost R69 (about $4.20) and would easily stack up with $20 wines at home.

The only red included in the tasting was their “baby Bourdeaux blend”, the Lanoy, which cost a full R80 ($4.80). It, too, was very good.

As a bonus, we got to taste their top reds (Manumission and Grande Syrah), which are no longer in their catalog but were available for about R700 ($42) each.

We liked the wine so much that a friend and I considered buying a case and having it shipped home – but the shipping would have cost about four times what the wine cost, so we gave up on the idea! Wine.com carries a few of the wines we tasted, so there might yet be some Boschendal wines in our future.

We left during another break in the rain and strolled across the parking lot to our bus. Boschendal is a very pretty place with lots of shops and restaurants on premises. If I lived here, I’d love to come back and explore it in depth.

On the drive back to the hotel, we got to see a tiny bit of the mountains surrounding Stellenbosch – maybe we’ll see more on the way back to Cape Town tomorrow.

We returned to the hotel and took a quick walk through Stellenbosch. There’s no load shedding planned tonight, which is good, because Dave Natale has scheduled tonight for our official Wine Tour cocktail party and dinner here at the hotel restaurant, and it’ll be much better if we can see what we’re eating and drinking!