Wine Tasting - Day 2

Day 2 of wine tasting was in Franschhoek. There is one main road in Franschhoek and there are wineries up and down the whole road. You can drive by until you see something that sparks your eye and choose that one. No appointments are needed unlike some vineyards in Napa.

We started out early at Graham Beck Winery. Graham Beck is the largest producer in Franschhoek. As such, they have a whole formal estate with a parking lot, business offices, and separate tasting room. No being served directly by the wine maker here. I am a lover of bubbles which is one thing they're known for. One of their champagnes was served at Obama's inauguration. Therefore I got the champagne tasting. There were 5 or 6 glasses of champagne that were at least 2/3 full. Before I knew it I'd had 4 glasses of champagne by 11:30 am and was drunk! Nick had a separate tasting that gave an overview of all their wines. So between the two tastings we tried about 14 different wines. I've also seen Graham Beck champagnes in a few places in the US since coming back from South Africa. I recommend trying them if you can find them near you.

Next was lunch at Bread and Wine at the Moreson Winery, an adorable little restaurant where we had another leisurely lunch.  They had small wine flights at lunch that you can mix and match so we used that as our tasting.

Our last stop of the day was Stony Brook Vineyards.  Stony Brook is a very small vineyard with a small and homey tasting room.  We were served by one of the winemakers.  It was very interesting to hear all the stories of how and why they chose certain grapes and what made one year's wine better than another.  A very personal touch and quite a contrast to the morning's stop at Graham Beck.