Chocolate and Wine - Two of my Favourite Things!

Mmmm I love wine : ) Today I went on a winelands tour through AVIVA with 10 other volunteers from the various programs. We started our tour off by visiting the Waterford Estate winery in the Stellenbosch region where we had the opportunity to try 6 different wines. The first was probably my favourite wine of the day called Mary Rose. The next two were reds, one of which was one of the worst wines I've ever tried, tasted a little like a wet campfire (that is really the only way to describe it.) The last three were paired up with three different chocolates. The first two were reds paired with two different types of dark chocolate and were really delicious. The third was a dessert wine which was way to sweet for my liking and was paired with a milk chocolate that tasted like soap (also not to my liking.)

The next stop of the day was to the Cheetah Outreach program where I had the opportunity to pet a cheetah and have my picture taken with it. Was very rushed so I only got to pet it for about 30 seconds but it was still a neat thing to do and the entry fee went to the program which helps save cheetahs from poachers. Next we went for lunch in a lovely little town just outside of Stellenbosch. The town was built with a lot of French influence and it really shows in the architecture and looks very different than the other parts of Cape Town and surrounding area that I have seen so far. What I loved most was that the area was surrounded by these incredible mountain ranges and huge grape fields.

The next stop was another winery where we were able to choose 6 wines to try from a very extensive list. I tried a variety of whites, reds and a dessert wine. Generally I'm not a fan of dessert wine (including the one I had earlier in the day) but the one I tried at the second winery was quite lovely and tasted almost like fresh peach juice. At this winery we were also able to taste different cheeses with our wine. The name a selection of the wines was Goats on a Roam so of course they had goats at the winery! We also passed by a lot of other wineries in the region (there about about 200 in the area) some of which had pet wildebeasts, zebras and ostriches - certainly not your average house or farm pet.

The last stop was another winery about two minutes down the road where we were served 7 wines very similar to the first winery we visited - 1 rose, 2 whites, 3 reds and a dessert wine. I enjoyed all of them, but there were none that jumped out at me as being spectacular or unique.

Overall a very enjoyable day. One week down already!!