We woke up dark & early - 6am, to catch a 6:30
cab into the city centre. We had to meet at this Eco friendly cafe called Eco Cafe. However, when we got there it wasn't opened so we just waited with a few other people while our guides came. When they arrived, the cafe opened & we all got something to eat. Since the food all took a little longer than we thought, we had to basically walk as fast as we all could to make our train to the Stellenbosch vineyards. We did make on time, phew! These trains are pretty sketchy. We at least had our own car & with our guides, then at one stop police actually came on, so it felt a little better. But there was no way I would ride these trains by ourselves. 
We arrived about an hour later & walked over to where we picked up our mountain bikes & helmets. It was just this shack in the middle of vineyards. There were about 15 of us on the tour together, however, after the first 2 vineyards we would brake up into 2 different groups - the Platinum group (which was us, less biking, more drinking) & then the adventure group (more up hill biking).
The first Vineyard we arrived at was called Welmoed. This was a very pretty area & we got to try 5 different wines:
1) Kumkani Infiniti Brut MCC (Methode Cup Classique) - this was a bit bubbly, but good. I don't know if I could handle more then 1 glass, but I did enjoy my first glass. A bottle of this cost R70, which is $9.43
2) Welmoed Chenin Blanc - this was my FAVORITE. It had sweet & fruity flavors & really good. And this bottle only cost R26, which = $3.50
3) Kumkani Pinotage - little heavier than I prefer & kind of bold, but again pretty good. R63 = $8.49
4) Versus Natural Sweet White - pretty good but only could have 1 glass because it was way too sweet R21 = $2.83
5) Kumkani Sauvignon Blanc - this one wasn't my favorite, but just OK R54 = $7.28
Next we biked about 20 more minutes to a winery called Spier. This place was much bigger & had a Spa/Hotel there. Here the Platinum group, us, got to try 3 different wines with 3 different cheeses. The first wine was a white wine with a garlic goat cheese - we actually had tried this cheese before, but it was really good with the white wine. The next was a rose wine with a sharper cheddar cheese. I actually like this rose wine better than the white. We then ended with a Merlot paired with a blue cheese, but instead of blue it had cranberry. Now, I am not a Merlot person, but when I ate this amazing cheese & then sipped some of the Merlot, it was really good.
I thought Spier did a good job pairing the cheeses with these different wines.
From Spier, we traveled literally through the back parts of the winelands. We were on little dirt & narrow paths, missing muddy puddles, ducking from tree branches, & crossing a hand made stick bridge.
We then continued our ride along side a field of vineyards & making our way to the Brandy making place.
We had to slide our bikes through this little space between a barbed wire fence & a gate. We had to be very careful. Here we were greeted with a mix drink of brandy & apricot juice. This was very very good & I thought, wow am I going to like brandy. I learn that brandy is very popular in South Africa & pretty well know around the world for their brandy. After the delicious welcome drink, we moved into our own room where we had 2 glasses of brandy - one was 10 year old brandy & the other 12 year old brandy. Well, Ali went first & her face was priceless - she did not like either one. The lady, Jean, told us to not swirl our brandy, because then it will taste stronger than it should. I think this is what happened with Ali's, it got swirled. Tony was just taking in all the smells of the brandy.
I tried the 10 year old one and I didn't like mine either. I then tried the 12 year old one & it was a lot better. Not that I could even start to finish my glass, but at least better than the 10 yr old one.
We then got to do a tour of the Brandy Distillory, & got to see all the coopper machines that they make it in as well as where they store like 50 year old Brandy.
We also got to see a guy make a barrel that they would store the brandy in. He waws awesome!! I guess this guy was even on Sout African tv for the way he makes his barrel. I guess each barrel maker has their own musical rhythm with creating a barrel. The sounds of the hammer against the metal create this fun an vibrant music. He was great!
From there went rode only 10 mins to another winery that I can't remember but started with a V. We first had lunch there, where we sat outside enjoying the perfect sunny day. The girls split a bottle of white while the boys had a few beers. I ordered a traditional South African meal called bobotie. This is basically spiced minced meat baked with an egg on top and below the meat curried rice. It was unbelievable - I seriously ate it ALL.
Then we went into another room where we got to try 5 more wines, which I can't really remember which ones exactly. However, the reason for this is we met Youngy & Gilberto from Anchorage, Alaska. This guy is going to be hard for me to describe, however, he was hilarious. He first called out that Tony & I were newlyweds, which technically we are & then he said to Ali & Tim that they have been married for 3 1/2 years. It was crazy! He kept having us cheers by saying, "Salud, Salud, Salud, Salud" so we all kept drinking & laughing so much.
He wanted to meet us all out later that evening, so we gave him a time and a place to meet up later. We were like a big happy family by the time the wine tasting was done here.
Finally, our last stop was a Cheetah sanctuary where we saw 2 girls literally petting a cheetah. We didn't have time to get to pet this beautiful animals but it was cool to see them. Then we rode back to drop our bikes off, got a free bottle of wine & headed back on the nasty train to head to Cape Town.
We got home, exhausted, and rested for just a little. We decided to have another Braii with Ostrich,, so the boys grilled that & we made corn & mash potatoes. Man, we do cook a damn good ostrich.
We then met up with our new friends and headed to Daddy Cool bar, which was too cool for us, because there was a private party but we refused to leave so we found a great corner seat & kept the drinks flowing. We had so much fun with Gilberto & Youngy, that we exchanged email addresses & they invited us to their 2nd home in Alaska as well as their daughter's July wedding.
After a few more drinks, we all got up and started dancing - this night was the best! A few funny things that Gilberto kept saying: Tim looked like Tom Cruise, so he was Cruise all night & even though Ali wasn't drunk, he kept pointing his finger at her saying "You are drunk" haha it was funny. We all slept nicely that night :)
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