No visit to the Western Cape would be complete without visiting some of the many Cape Town Vineyards.
Traditionally, the Cape Wineland area is thought of as being situated in and around Stellenbosch, about 50km to the east of the CBD. That’s not the full story- there are Cape Vineyards all over the Province- in fact, the first Cape Town Vineyards were on the Cape Point Peninsula, down in Constantia and Tokai. The fist Cape Vineyards were established by the early governors, with Simon Van Der Stel starting up a vineyard in what is now Constantia in the late 1600’s.
Since those early days the vast majority of production has shifted to the Vineyards around Stellenbosch, but a few very high quality estates have survived and thrived on the Cape Point Peninsula. Groot Constantia, Buitenverwachting, Constantia Uitsig, Steenberg and Cape Point Vineyards are all excellent wine producers, have fantastic food outlets and do the tourist thing with tasting rooms and tours etc.
For the majority of visitors to the Cape Point Peninsula the part of it between Cape Town and the gates of the Good Hope Nature Reserve is just a view from bus window, which is a real shame. There is so much more to this strip of land, and the excellent Cape TownVineyards that can be found there are just some of the hidden treasures. Whilst Cape Vineyards such as Spier are becoming increasingly commercialized, feeling more like theme parks than working wineries, the Vineyards of Cape Point still maintain that feeling of a small operations that still cares about their craft- and they tend not to be as crowded as some of the bigger Vineyards out in the Stellenbosch area.
You even get the advantage of having a very easy to follow wine route. From Constantia Main Road to Steenberg is less than 12km and has at least four top class Cape Town Vineyards on it. Its then only a short hop over the picturesque Ou Kaapse Weg to the Cape Point Vineyards, with the possibility of coming back to Cape Town via the achingly beautiful Chapmans Peak Drive (if its open), continuing up the Western Seaboard- surely one of the most stunningly beautiful round trips in the world, with 5 wine estates thrown in for good measure.