Our last full day on this amazing tour was reserved for another look at South Africa’s natural beauty. Yesterday was the Cape of Good Hope. Today, we traveled about an hour southwest to the Franschhoek Valley, better known as the Cape Winelands. Here we were treated to a farm tour, wine tasting and gourmet lunch at the Solms-Delta Winery.
We could not have asked for a more perfect day. The morning was cool, but once 9am rolled around, the sun blazed and the temperatures were in the 60s. (I love ‘winter’ in South Africa!) We turned into the winery parking lot and the view truly looked like it came right from a postcard:
If you can take your eyes off the mountain ridge in the background for JUST a second, in the foreground, you’re looking at new vines being grown on supports – to keep them straight and in line.
We were met by our tour guide, Steve, who began our tour in the winery’s Museum van de Caab. The first thing that crossed my mind as I walked toward the museum was “A winery museum? We’ll probably be learning about the ways they made wine ‘back in the day’ and how it’s changed through the years.” Not the most exciting thing for me. When I entered, however, the first thing that caught my eye was a very large wall display that had 200 black polished plaques:
Our guide told us that these plaques represented the many slaves that were part of the winery’s history. In fact, the name of the museum “van de Caab” (which is Dutch for “of the Cape”) is in memory of the generic suffix that was added to slaves’ names in the 1600s when they were born on the Cape. According to the winery’s webpage on this topic:
In everything we do at Solms-Delta we try to honour what it means to be South African, … in an honest and open way that unites all of our people, cultures, languages, musical styles, culinary traditions, flora and fauna, historic landscapes and buildings.
You’ll notice that some plaques are all in capital letters. These act like ‘section headers’ that tell us owners’ names and then what follows is a list of any slaves they owned. Thus, Hans Silverbach – who was the first Dutch settler of this winery, owned only one slave, but that slave’s name is not known today. Following Silverbach, the next settlers of the winery must have been Christoffell Snijmann, who owned two slaves, etc. Coming from the US, where we tend to downplay the enslavement of people, Solms-Delta does not shy away from their past. They try to address the issue and say, in a sense, ‘These individuals were true contributors to our success and without them, we would not be as successful as we are today.’
The fact they they memorialized the slaves that worked on this winery does not mean that the museum had an idealized view of slave life. Posters, such as the one below, made it clear that the life of a Cape slave was cruel and they were, in the end, treated as little more that property:
Another display reminds us that, similar to the progression of slavery in the USA, when slavery did arrive for those in Cape Town, it was not as absolute as we might think:
In addition to the variety of exhibits on slavery, other displays showcased life on a vineyard, such as one exhibit that shows types of ceramic items that were used almost 350 years ago:
Following the museum, Steve led us toward some vineyards and explained some of the specifics of what it means to start a winery. He said that it takes approximately five to seven years of grape growing before any wine can be made. Then, one area can only continue to produce quality grapes for twenty to twenty-five years before a new location must be used. He spent a lot of time explaining how this winery has revived an old form of wine making, involving a process called desiccation. This is a method intended to increase the flavor of the grapes by pinching or squeezing the stalks so that less water arrives to the grapes. There is a detailed description of the process here. Using desiccation, up to 40% of the water is not delivered to the grapes, but the flavor remains and is intensified due to the lack of water. The end result is a sweeter, more flavorful grape. Solms-Delta attributes their unique flavor and wine style to this process.
Our next stop was the facility where the wine is aged. Here, we saw massive aging containers that were made of metal and the more classic oak barrels:
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| Susan Renyolds, Lou Ann Griswold, Susan Merrill, Brenna Decotis and me |
We headed from this facility to a shaded area where the wine tasting part of the tour would begin. On the way, we passed one of five (I believe) vineyards. Again, the view was intense. I tried to capture it in this panorama, but I am sure I did not do it justice:
The wine tasting component to the tour was managed by our wine taster, Hilton. He brought out a variety of wines that showcased the breath of the Solms-Delta wine offerings. He gave us backgrounds, name translations and ideas on what types of food would go best with each wine. In all, we sampled nine different creations, including a unique honey wine (!Karri) and a pear cider (Perry). There were whites (Vastrap, Amalie), rosés (Lekkerwijn ), reds (Langarm, Hiervandaan), dessert wines (Koloni), and even a sparkling wine (Shiraz). All were interesting and several bottles were purchased by our tour group. My favorite was the Amalie…
Following the tasting, it was almost lunch time. We were lucky it was winter, so we were able to partake in the Sunday Winter Buffet at the winery’s amazing restaurant, the Fyndraai. Like the winery’s grounds and the wines themselves, this was NOT your ordinary buffet. The menu featured both a hot and cold buffet, each with an array of fabulous foods and flavors. In fact, the menu can be found here. The preparation was excellent and the staff was very helpful and professional. It was truly the best way to end a fabulous tour!
If you are anywhere in this region of Cape Town, treat yourself to an amazing experience and visit the Solms-Delta winery. If the weather is just right, plan to spend the entire day. You won’t be disappointed!
