Franschhoek Wine Tram

The Western Cape of South Africa- the area around Cape Town- is famous for its wines. In the early 1700s, French Hugenots fled here, escaping persecution. They brought with them their knowledge of wine-making, and started vineyards in the region.

Franschhoek is one of the most well-known of these, and is full to the brim with large- and small-scale wineries. Vineyards stretch through the valley as far as the eye can see, watched over by grand old manor houses.

Today, we're exploring these via a Wine Tram (which includes busses), taking us round a number of wineries to sample their best wines. It's basically a posh pub-crawl, and we're absolutely buzzing.

We start fairly early in the morning at Babylonstoren. The wine is fantastic, and we have a wine that we've never tried before- a Voignier. Now, we don't pretend to have anywhere near a good knowledge of wine. Chris knows that he likes Merlots, and KT despises Chardonnays. But being on a Wine Tour in the heart of South African wine region really makes us feel like sommeliers. The staff at the vineyards present each wine with a description of the grape, time of harvest, and other technical information which is lost on us, but allows us to make the appropriate noises to make us sound knowledgeable. "Hmm, nice, yes, ooh brilliant".

By the end of the tour, we've sampled a good number of wines, and are really enjoying ourselves. The scenery is unbelievable. Mountains dominate the horizon in every direction, the long lines of grapes marching down the valley sides in perfect rows. It's an ideal place to get drunk.Read more