Cheese, Wine and Olives. Around the Cape Winelands

INTRODUCTION

The happy marriage between wine and cheese is nowhere more apparent than in the Cape Winelands, with olives and olive oils completing the picture: imagine a long table in the dappled shade of a vineyard terrace, with good friends sharing laughter and simple food as the shadows lengthen towards evening. In the mood? Then slow down and swap the city for a valley where nature sets the pace, where deadlines are measured in seasons not minutes, where handcrafted cheeses and oils are left to mature in their own good time.

The people you’ll meet are as warm as the sun on your back as you meander through the beautifully scenic greater Paarl area, before moving on to Wellington, settled by the French Huguenots.

TIME: One (full) day
DISTANCE: About 180km
BEST TIME TO GO: Any time, although April to June is most interesting for olives, as that is when they’re being harvested and processed.
BEST TIME TO GO: All year – warm summer days are perfect for chilled chardonnay under a shady oak, while winter delivers a completely different experience: many tasting areas have roaring fires. Cellar tours are more interesting in harvest time, during February and March, while autumn turns the vineyards to gold.
THE ROUTE: Nibble your way through camembert and caseggio around Paarl and Wellington, with the occasional olive and glass of wine, of course.

THE ROUTE

• Taste the cheese at Anura
• Detour to Fairview
• Catch up on what you missed at Cotage Fromage
• Pop into Paarl’s wicked chocolate delicatessen
• Lunch at Hildenbrand Wine and Olive Estate
• Taste the wine at Bovlei
• Another wine tasting at Rhebokskloof
• Dinner (and more cheese) at La Masseria

Before you go

• Have a hearty breakfast – you’ll be tempted to taste wine at all these estates along with all the delicious cheeses and olives.
• Sundays are rest days in the country – only Anura, Cotage Fromage, Hildenbrand and
• Rhebokskloof remain open, the rest all close for the day.
• La Masseria is closed on Mondays and Sunday nights.

Waterfront to Anura – 30min

From the Waterfront turn left onto the highway and keep following signs for N1 Paarl. At about 45km take Exit 47, R44 Stellenbosch, Klapmuts, and turn right at the stop. At 46.6km, turn left to R45 Franschhoek. Anura is 600m along this road.

Ponds full of platannas (a type of frog) greet you at Anura, which is Latin for frog, and when it rains the sound is deafening. They welcome you into a lovely tasting room with long oak tables overlooking the barrel room and green lawns. Get comfortable, as there are plenty of cheeses to taste. The Forest Hill Cheesery at Anura specialises in white mould cheeses – brie and camembert – using Jersey milk from Rustenberg and Ayrshire milk from Glen Carlou. Their traditional camembert and brie have both won ‘Best in South Africa’ awards at the National Cheese Festival, but make space for their flavoured bries, with green figs, green peppercorns, chives or apricots soaked in port. All are made using non-animal rennet.

Detour to Fairview – 8min

Turn right out of Anura. Then left onto the Simonsvlei Road, which is gravel. At about 4.8km, T-junction right onto the R101 (tar). At 5.4km, turn left onto the Suid-Agter Paarl Road, signed to Seidelberg, Ruitersvlei. Cross the highway. Fairview is on the right at 7.7km.

While frogs rule Anura, goats are king at Fairview. You’ll park beneath their snooty stares from the trademark goat tower, before going inside to taste a huge range of award-winning cheeses made from both goats’ and cows’ milk, alongside even more award-winning wines – owner Charles Back was recently voted South Africa’s wine person of the decade. And you have to laugh at their ‘Goats do Roam’ wine label that had the French makers of Côte du Rhône wine all in a tizz. Their La Beryl won best Pont l’Evéque and the Roydon best camembert at the 2003 World Cheese Awards, so be sure to taste those along with plenty of chevins, white moulds and blue cheeses and even a ‘white’ blue without the blue vein. They’re all available in a comprehensive cheese shop that also sells tasting platters of seven styles if you can’t make up your mind. The kids will enjoy watching the goats being milked, and if you visit in July and August, there’ll be plenty of kids (of the baby goat kind) to keep you enchanted. As you leave Fairview, stop for a moment at the opposite field for a glimpse of zebra, bontebok and eland.