2009-10-10 - three wine tastings... with VIEWS!

How nice. We woke up to... no water. No water for the shower, no water for washing our dirty dishes, no water for flushing the toilet, nothing. Apparently a water main had burst. AGAIN, according to our hosts, a very lovely couple who rented the apartment to us. They were sweet and all apologetic and stuff, and, well, shit happens. It sucks that it has to happen our last day here, but we suppose things could have been worse. Like no water the day Ms. Penguin was sick and puking and stuff... *shudder*

Anyway...

Not having water wasn't the end of the world. We dealt with a few days of not bathing at all when we were in Botswana last year. And we weren't that dirty and smelly. Furthermore, we could shower at the airport lounge. So we just tossed on some clothes and headed out to do stuff.

The car needed a wash (it's polite to return a clean rental car) so it got a wash. We then headed out to Lanzerac Wines for lunch and a tasting; Ms. Penguin has a former colleague who recommended Lanzerac both for food and for wine, and for the view (it's quite lovely there). We started with lunch. Ms. Penguin ordered mussels as her starter while Mr. Penguin had a venison carpaccio; we each ate half of our starters and then exchanged plates. We both had lamb as our main. After lunch, we did a tasting of their lovely wines. The Pinotage and the Cabernet Sauvignon were especially noteworthy.

Our next stop was Hidden Valley. The view was even better than the view at Lanzerac, and the wines possessed the same awesomeness. They have a restaurant there that's supposed to be quite good, but it's a good thing we didn't try to eat there. It looked like there was a private arrangement going on (a wedding perhaps), so there was a good chance that we wouldn't get any food. Even along the way there, there was a sign for the restaurant advising advance bookings...

After we did our wine tasting, we walked around the grounds, to take some photos and watch the ducks in the dam. Very nice!

Finally, we did a tasting at Uva Mira. OMFSM what a view!!! This was getting better and better; what a shame it would soon be time to go home! Now, Uva Mira is located on top of a hill. From the tasting room, you can see False Bay, Table Mountain, Cape Town, and Cape Point. Although it was a bit misty when we arrived, so you could only see the contours of Table Mountain. It's definitely worth a visit for the view alone.

And again, the wines were of the same high calibre as Lanzerac and Hidden Valley. Except for the corked wine that Mr. Penguin sniffed out before anyone else could sniff, or worse yet taste. (How much you wanna bet that there would be people out there who sniff and taste a corked wine and have no idea that it was corked, but pretend to know something about wine and nod their heads and say it was good? :) Oh, and if you're hungry you can order a cheese platter to go with your wine tasting, or a bottle (or two) of wine...

It was a crying shame that we couldn't buy anything to take home :-(