Franschoek - wine country

Ambereen used to tell me about South African wines and every time we went to buy wine in Denver she would suggest one but I always blew it off as I was unimpressed with the offerings. It turns out that the wine industry was hit with sanctions during apartheid and they could not export their products to many countries, including the US. Well, I've discovered that there are literally over 100 wineries in the region and they have been around for a while. On Tuesday we decided to drive to one of the regions about an hour and a half outside of Cape Town. We drove the N1 to Worcester then back though smaller roads to Franschoek. It was a pretty area with dams, rivers, mountains, tunnels, passes and wineries. Check it out on map. It rained but the scenery was still wonderful. It's a mountainous area covered in vegetation. We stopped at Haute Cabriere winery and had a fantastic 4 course lunch with wine pairings. I should have grabbed a menu to describe the food. It was a fabulous meal. I will post some pics soon. I stopped to look at a plaque and it turns out this particular winery dated back to 1694. Impressive. The wine was delicious too, as you can imagine. There are so many wineries around here that it would take decades to explore them all. Seriously. But we'll hit more soon. On a side note, we stopped at a small corner grocery this afternoon and I picked up a bottle of wine for $2.68. And it's not bad! Crazy.