Paarl Valley wine estates, where to go and what to drink!
The Paarl Valley is home to some of South Africa’s most beautiful wine estates. The area houses large international wine companies as well as smaller boutique style wineries, offering a wide variety of wines to suit all palettes. The valley is known especially for its Shiraz, which has been chosen as the signature cultivar of the region, however more recently major wine awards have been given to relatively unknown varietals such as Petit Verdot and Malbec produced in the area. Paying a visit to these estates come highly recommended by myself, the self proclaimed High Wine Fly of the ‘Weekend Wine Flies Society’ – just a group of friends sitting around drinking wine really! Seeing that most of these estates offer added attractions, feel free to bring the whole family as there is bound to be something to keep the kids busy while you’re sipping your award winning wine.
Being quite generous of spirit and excessively (some even call it obsessively) proud of my province, I have decided to advise you a little on which estates to visit. Please note that I am at this point still without children, so my criteria for approval really is all about the wine, food when applicable and the atmosphere more than anything else at this stage. Although most estates are child friendly, you might want to do a little more research about other estates should you be travelling with kiddies in tow.
Laborie Wine Estate is first on my list. They’re one of the oldest operational wine estates in South Africa and have a whole string of award winning wines, an estate brandy, as well as some of the best Methode Cape Classique bubblies on their bragging list. They have a great restaurant serving fabulous food paired perfectly with their own wine and one can even stay overnight in the guest house should you have enjoyed that last glass of wine a little too much.
Another favourite is De Reuck Wine Estate, situated on Crow’s nest farm. It’s located in what is called the Agter Paarl area and the wine cellar is right up against the mountain. The view over the greater Cape Town area with Table Mountain in the back ground is breathtaking and the surrounding vineyards and rolling hills are spectacular. They go in for the trendy wine farm wedding thing and focus a lot of their marketing on that. However still well worth a visit, even if it is just for the view and the delicious wine.
Recently I discovered another little gem right in the middle of the town itself in the form of Pontac Manor Hotel. I was lucky enough to stay there for a weekend and completely fell in love. The prize winning restaurant really delivered on the food and wine side, the accommodation was lovely and the service fantastic. So I would recommend making a reservation there and using it as a base for exploring the Paarl Valley and all the fabulous wine estates in the area.
Enjoy the sceneryand hospitality of the Paarl Wine Valley. Lots of Paarl accommodation available to choose from and plenty of fabulous Paarl activities and attractions to indulge in.. Free reprint available from: Paarl Valley wine estates, where to go and what to drink!.