You Can Go Wine Tasting in the Garden Route!

So I have been frequenting the Garden Route, mostly Knysna to be exact, quite often lately. I wonder if it has anything to do with a beautiful and amazing local lady? hehe, yip, it seems a new passion has wondered into my life, apart from wine and adventurous activities :) But not to worry, she loves wine too, so I am beyond certain that consumption of wine and visits to wine farms will be on the up! Oh yeah!

I must admit I have rather missed Stellenbosch and the Cape Winelands as its been a while since I have paid the awesome area a visit, or popped into a new wine farm to try and discover a hidden gem of a wine, just waiting to quench my thirst. Being from Gauteng, It's taken me a while to start becoming familiar with the wine regions, although the Garden Route is very new to me and to be honest, I never really knew of wine farms in the area.

  

I was therefore very impressed and surprised when said lady, took me to Bramon, a boutique Wine Estate 20km east of Plettenberg Bay. 

Bramon is the most easterly estate in the Cape, situated  in a mountainous area called The Crags, with gentle slopes and cool sea breezes. The family run estate pioneered vineyards in the Plettenberg Bay area, which subsequently was classified as a Wine of Origin region back in 2005. The Plettenberg Bay Region stretches from the Groot Rivier in Natures Valley, to Harkerville in the west and borders on the bay. 

At Bramon, the first Sauvignon Blanc vines were planted in 2000, which have produced an award winning Methode Cap Classique ("MCC") and now a Sauvignon blanc has been added to the range. It was a delight to visit the farm and drink some of their marvelous MCC over a delicious light lunch at the restaurant, with the tables literally in the vineyards! I found the MCC to be refreshing and crisp with lovely lime and apple flavours, finishing off with a buttery hint. I couldn't help but think whilst siting in the vineyards, that anyone requiring inspiration to write, or for what ever other reason, would definitely get it here.

I decided to do a little research regarding wine farms in the Garden Route and to my amazement there are approximately 18 wine farms in the area. So it seems my visits to the Garden Route no longer have to be dry runs, causing me to have withdrawal symptoms from much needed wine tastings and visits to wine farms, bloody marvelous! 

Only Sauvignon Blanc is currently cultivated in the Plettenberg Bay Region and it seems the specialty of the area is sparkling wine, although the area is apparently experimenting with Shiraz as a red variety. 

With this new found information about the Plettenberg Bay Wine Region and seeing that I will continue to frequent the area for obvious regions, I hereby nominate myself to try out all the wine farms in the area! Watch this space...

Practicing to be a wine Farmer :)