I recently had some family staying in Cape Town and I was excited for the opportunity to
be a tourist in my own city. Too often, we get busy and we don’t find the time
to explore everything our home has to offer, so when visitors arrive it forces
us to act as tour guide and to go to all those places we never find the hours to visit any more.
My family found the most stunning self-catering accommodation in Milnerton- I was quite jealous actually!
I decided to do something a bit different- I took my relatives
to all of the regular highlights, but I also remembered that the South African Cheese and Wine Festival was on at Sandringham Wine Estate in Stellenbosch.
It’s a pleasant drive, which isn’t too far away
from the city at all and it was a great way to show my relatives a bit of the
Cape countryside. We arrived at Sandringham and were quite overwhelmed by the
number of people- there were cars everywhere. We entered the festival, got our
guide book, bought our glasses and were good to go… The ABSA tent was our first
port of call! The tent was full of stalls, mostly wine farms, offering free
tastings of their wines and produce. As it was so crowded, we had to queue for
most of the popular brands, but it was well-worth it and I felt extremely proud
of my home as my relatives kept praising our wines (these praises got
progressively more extravagant with the more wines we tried, but I’m sure they were
heartfelt!). Many of the wines were on special, so we capitalised and bought a
few bottles, in between trying the scrumptious nougat, toffees and cupcakes
also on offer.
Next we joined the line for the cooking show and were
privileged to witness the talented comedian and chef, Nataniel, in action. He
cooked up a storm and kept us all entertained in the process! I was hungry
after this, so we hopped over to the Checker’s cheese emporium and smiled huge,
cheesy grins when we saw the number of delectable cheeses on offer!
There’s a
reason why my favourite movie was Wallace and Gromit when I was little… I love
cheese, probably far too much for my own good! I thought I was quite well
versed in South African cheeses but it turns out I am extremely ignorant. The number of cheeses on offer was mind blowing and I had
never heard of most of the cheese makers. After sampling about 20 variations of
goats cheese, 15 types of brie, cheddar, Camembert, cream cheese, ricotta, blue
cheese and the list goes on, even I couldn’t face another bite and retreated,
defeated, outside into the sunshine, armed with a selection of goodies for later. I later found out that over 32 000 people visited the festival over the four day period and a whopping 35 tons of cheese was tasted and bought (I probably single-handedly consumed about a ton of this!).
We bought several
kinds of artisan bread, a special type of cheese which is soaked in red wine-
aptly named Dronk cheese, a few kinds of goats cheese and Pesto Princess’s
rocket pesto and sat at a table sharing a few bottles of wine, happily nibbling
away for a good few hours, before waddling back to the car and driving home.
Cape Town, you are a beautiful place and I’m so happy I took
some time to be a tourist and to remember all the many reasons why I love you
so much- not least of all your cheese and wine!
Images from the FZP website
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