Affiliate Disclosure: This page may contain affiliate links. If you click these links and purchase something you will not pay anything extra, but I may get a small commission because of my partnership with these companies. This helps me keep this blog running so I can keep sharing travel information with you!

Wine Tasting in South Africa

I am an inexperienced wine taster, though thankfully Andreas is not. When he was attending a university in Paris , they required (!) a wine tasting course, and he’s visited vineyards in California and South Africa since.

I love getting to know wine through Andreas, and I think through his expertise I have become a better, or maybe, more opinionated, taster. I am starting to think that I prefer red to white (except for Chardonnay), and have also come to appreciate the stranger wines, like Retsina from Greece (definitely an acquired, earthy taste).

Wine tasting at Waterford Estate

One of the best things to try if you are visiting South Africa is wine tasting. South Africa produces great wine, and it is cheap! Before visiting, make sure you know how much alcohol you can import into your country and then stock up! Many wineries will also ship wine to you.

The plan

Our original plan was to visit three wineries in the Stellenbosch region. We quickly found that if you wanted to take your time and have a nice lunch as well, it was more likely that you would only be able to visit two. Most wineries and farms close at 5pm. We took an Uber to Stellenbosch (they’re all over, as it turns out), grabbed a quick breakfast, and were at our first tasting by 11am.

Waterford Estate

We visited on a Friday and it was not very busy, but it is recommended that you book an appointment for a tasting online. The walkway up to the restaurant area is amazing, straight out of a scene from the Italian countryside. A large, friendly Ridgeback greeted us at the door and hung around the fountain area where we did our tasting.

The Ridgeback of Waterford Estate

We chose a 9-wine package, the last three of which were paired with chocolate that was also made by the farm. We had a charming wine expert lead us through the tasting, assuming we were millennials and giving us some reasons to buy newer wines. He believed they were going to be “in fashion” in the next few years. Call me an old soul but I do prefer older wines, even if from “new” regions like South Africa!

Chocolate and wine tasting at Waterford Estate

Overall, Waterford Estate was a lovely experience, with some very different wines to taste, flexible staff, and a relaxing and beautiful environment. We felt we learned a lot about how grapes are grown and how certain wines are made. We also walked away with three wines that we really loved to take home!

Delaire Graff

We made lunch reservations for 1pm at Delaire Graff. Due to the busy-ness of the main restaurant our booking was with their smaller restaurant, Indochine, which we did not regret at all. The food was Asian inspired and beautifully displayed. The sommelier was a quirky fellow with an amazing mustache who managed to give us an excellent and unique wine pairing with our food. Our lunch was amazing and I would definitely go back!

Lunch at the Indochine restaurant

The wine tasting was a whole other experience. The view was incredible, with rolling hills and vineyards all around. The restaurant area was nicely set up under a beautiful vine canopy, but the wait staff was not as attentive. The wine was also not nearly as good, nor was there a great selection to choose from.

We decided to go with 5 wines, but were limited to mostly whites. The ones we wanted to try were either out of stock or we were just not allowed to taste them. Personally, I think if you are going to list wines on your wine tasting menu you should give the guests the option to taste them! The lack of red options was also disappointing.

Andreas with the stunning view at Delaire Graff (and a helicopter in the background)

We did finally manage to convince our wine expert to let us taste one wine that was not supposed to be opened for guests. Thankfully, this one was good enough that we decided to buy a bottle ($15). We only walked away with one wine from Delaire Graff. I was surprised with the location and the family background (wealthy jewelers) that the wine was not better.

Overall

Wine tasting in South Africa can be a great and relaxing experience, but choose your locations carefully. Plan out your day so you can go to all the places you would like to visit. You can also spread out your visits over a few days if you have the time. We had planned on visiting 3 vineyards in one day but by the time we finished lunch and navigated the slow wait staff in Delaire Graff it was closing time, so we missed out on our third location. I didn’t mind so much as I was pretty satisfied with my overall tasting experience!

Wine tasting in South Africa is also a relatively cheap experience, mostly because the vineyard is hoping you will like their wine enough to buy a bottle! Most bottles averaged around $9, so they were also not that expensive. Wine is a great souvenir or gift to bring home from South Africa!

Where have you gone wine tasting? Did you enjoy it? Did you end up buying wine from the vineyard you visited? Share your experiences with me below!

Delaire Graff