Come and travel with us to one of our top wine farms.
You will see horses, old farming implements, some surprises and wine. We heard about this place and decided to investigate. This is one of the oldest wine farms in this area of the Western Cape Province of South Africa.
Started in the year of 1688 and a part of its history has been preserved.
We could only pay a short visit to the farm and soon I will take you along to go and have a look at the wine making processes and procedures on the farm. But for now, this is our first visit and we plan to return soon.
So without further ado come and let's investigate.
The post has 3 parts.
- The ride
- The arrival.
- Surprise finds.
- The ride
We love to take a drive into the countryside and here we are on our way to discover a wine farm that we heard about. It is approximately 20 kilometers from our home near one of the many mountains that we have here. A nice cruise on good roads and a soft wind kept us comfortable on the drive.
Much to be seen along the way, but I have kept the pictures focused on the trip to the farm.
There is a famous wine route over here that offers tours to many of the wine farms and they are all surrounded by the beauty of nature and the mountains.
This little guy had a way out hippie hairstyle :)
2.The arrival
A warm welcome awaited us from a lady that works inside this barn. To show you what she does I will show you in part 3.
Interesting that we were told that this is the oldest barn in the region and a big surprise awaited us when we entered the barn.
It was retained in it's original state over all of the years.
I always get a weird feeling of peace when I look at very old stuff and it felt like a cloud of witnesses was also present to welcome us. Proud of their achievements in history and happy that we visited.
But first let's have a look at the exterior of the barn.
- Surprise finds.
As we entered the wine tasting room inside the barn a new old world opened up to us. As I said before, it was kept in it's original state and there were beautiful spider webs all over the place. I took some photos of the windows and at some stage someone long gone placed some collectable items such as ostrich eggs and others on the window sills.
I am a tall guy and I could even see the tops of some old wine curing barrels through a high window.
The lady that I mentioned above works here in the wine tasting room and let me tell you that some international award winning wines are made here.
The Chalbert Merlot wine for instance was made for a princess of a royal house and yes, it was our pleasure to see it all.
Here we had the wine tasting room inside the barn and as age plays an important role in wine curing, the old barn lent a perfect sense to ageing.
The farm is owned by one of the South African, Springbok rugby legends by the name of Hempies du Toit and if there are any former international rugby players reading this, you might well remember him for his strength and his exploits on the rugby field.
Sadly we did not get to meet him, but he certainly knows how to make wine and he has a wonderful farm.
Don't forget to put this farm on your bucket list when you plan to visit the Cape in South Africa and for more on the farm, here's the link;
https://www.annandale.co.za/about/
We trust that you have enjoyed the pictures and the story.
Photos by Zac Smith-All Rights Reserved.
Camera: Canon Powershot SX60HS Bridge camera.
Thank you kindly for supporting a post on behalf of @papilloncharity
