From Beautiful Winelands! by Scott & Nancy

The world is beautifully bedecked with lovely wineries, from the Adorni Vineyards in Mendoza, Argentina, to the Dez Capitans in Burgundy, France, to the Abbot in Napa Valley, California. Wherever you happen to be heading on your next adventure, chances are there’s a winery to be visited and some fantastic wine to be tasted.

RealTravel members Scott & Nancy, a couple of adventurers from the U.S. went winery-hopping in lovely South Africa recently. They visited a small, quaint village and had a wonderful time.

Here’s an excerpt from their journal, Beautiful Winelands!

“Arrived in the small village of Franschhoek yesterday. It’s a beautiful, charming little village tucked into a valley and surrounded by mountains on three sides. Today we ventured out to three of the local vineyards for some wine tasting. Many of these vineyards have been here since the late 1600’s. Quite amazing the history.

We enjoyed a wonderful cheese plate for lunch at one of the vineyards (Dieu Donee’) that had a beautiful view of the valley. Perfect!! The wine master of this vineyard is also opening a brew pub and has traveled to Austria to perfect the brewing…

The joy of it all is that it’s fall here and pretty quiet so it’s almost as if we have the place all to ourselves. Unfortunately, we’ll miss the cheese festival that is scheduled for next weekend. Would have loved that as well. We then enjoyed our afternoon stroll along the main road with quaint shops and old Dutch buildings.” (more…)

For more RealTravel stories about wineries and great food around the world, check out journals tagged with food & wine. Also, for great ideas about where to go on your next trip, visit these useful links:

Franschhoek Travel Guide
Strat’s Place — A Winery Lover’s Site
South Africa Travel Guide