First we stop at Klein Constantia... mainly because I'd heard nice things about their dessert wine – it is centuries old and was once the favored drink of Napoleon and the French kings! Plus, it didn't hurt that the tasting was free. We worked our way through their offerings, but decided not to buy anything. The man doing the tasting mentioned towards the end that he had to hurry off to a meeting so we decided to move along as well.
It was getting to be around lunchtime soon, and we were in the area of La Colombe – supposedly the best restaurant in all of Africa (or so says the in-flight magazines!), so we head over to Constantia Uitsig, the winery where La Colombe is located. As we walk into the tasting room there...lo and behold! It's the man from our tasting at Klein...and he's sitting at the table with 8 glasses in front of him.
Apparently, we've crashed an inter-winery arranged tasting... so we are in for an hour of high-quality tastings accompanied by five winery pourers who are constantly discussing the pros and cons of each pour. The Klein employee is the guy in the front right.
Ok, so maybe some of the talk seemed a bit pretentious... but I didn't care – the wine was tremendous!
We got to taste multiple years of each variety so that we could see how much the weather for each season affects the taste – even when it's the same exact combination of grapes. Now I can see why people talk about liking particular years of wines – they really do taste very different! Note for wine drinkers -- 2007 was a particularly good year for Sauvignon Blancs in South Africa!
After all that wine tasting, we were definitely ready for our food.
Maybe the wine helped...but I thought our meal at La Colombe was the best one of the entire trip. They have a daily menu that they have to carry around to each table...good thing it's a small restaurant!
We started with a Truffled Egg with Fois Gras, and then I had an amazing Quail and Langoustine starter and a Risotto while Ian had fillet of Springbok. Total bill with wine, tax, and tip? Under $100 – I wish there was a La Colombe in Boston!
Now that we've gorged ourselves, it's time to begin the peninsula drive in earnest. First stop: Kalk Bay – paradise for surfers.
The pictures don't do the waves justice.
Though the day was a little cloudy, the sun still managed to peak through enough for some nice coastline pictures.
Next up, picturesque Simonstown – colonial structures, white sand, blue waters...
...and the resident penguin colony!
We caught them in the beginning of spring, so a lot of them were just beginning to lose their winter coats.
Next, we were ready to head to Cape Point...as we were driving...I had my shining moment of the trip: I spotted a whale.
We never quite got that tail in the air classic shot, but watching him play in the water was still pretty cool!
Sadly, however, our visit with the whale meant we had missed the park closing time for Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope – I guess we'll have to do the drive again another day! And so another day comes to an end...must get to bed early – wake up call at 5AM for shark diving!
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