Authentic wine tours for tourists and locals with Wine Flies

All aboard

Enter Wine Flies Tours a unique and intimate wine tour that takes the hassle and indecision out of wine tasting planning. Offering an itinerary of five different wine farms and five unique tastings in the Stellenbosch region, this tour is perfect to get a cursory introduction to Cape Town’s flourishing wine scene, as well as discover some hidden gems.

Driven, educated and entertained by a knowledgeable tour guide or “wine lord”, as they prefer to be referred to, one can just sit back, relax and proceed to get progressively tipsy. No need to spittoon at all.  A scheduled tour also offers the opportunity to bond with fellow travellers, perfect if looking for some company if traveling solo.

I recently played tourist in my own city and joined the Classic Tour with a veritable united nations of nationalities; German, American, Jamaican, Swiss and Malaysian. I felt a little odd introducing myself as a born and bred Captonian, however, out of the five wine farms visited, I had only been to one before.

Plucky ducks and sweet delights

The tour starts with an early start pick up from your hotel, hostel, B&B or Airbnb, followed by a drive through to Stellenbosch for the first stop on the itinerary, a tasting at Vergenoegd Wine Estate. Luckily, we made it with seconds to spare to see the famous duck parade, in which many plucky Indian Runner Ducks waddle at a pace through the farm to start their working day; i.e. picking snails and bugs of the vineyard vines – an eco-friendly and natural pesticide alternative.

Next, we were chauffeured through to boutique vineyard, Lovane Estate for a chocolate and wine pairing in their cellar. The chocolate is from CocoaFair, a local artisanal chocolatier and is absolutely delectable. We sampled offerings such as white chocolate with lemongrass, and milk chocolate with chai spice, perfect compliments to the Lovane varietal.

Boutique cellar tours

The next stop was a braai lunch on the lush green banks of Middelvlei Wine Estate, with delicious braaibroodjies and chicken kebabs to help soak up the alcohol and line the stomach for the next tastings. This also included a cellar tour and tasting straight from the barrel.

We followed this up with a quick tasting of wine and MCC at Villeria Wines and then concluded the tour with a wine and cheese pairing at family run boutique winery, Mitre's Edge, hosted by owner and wine maker Lola – so boutique, the tasting takes place in the cellar of the family home and surrounded by a multitude of dogs.

Filled with great food and wine, I was quite happy to gently snooze off my wine buzz in the comfortable 13 seater mini-bus on the way back.

Length:
The tour starts with a pick up between 8 and 8.30am and ends with a drop off between 5 and 6pm.

Cost:
One person – R3,270
Two people – R2,065 per person
Three people – R1,525 per person
Four people – R1,250 per person
Five people – R1,090 per person
Six people – R1,005 per person
Seven people – R965 per person
R935 per person for eight or more guests

Wine Flies also offers a variety of themed and private tours. For more info or to book a tour, visit the Wine Flies Tours website.