What better way to lift your spirits than to take a tour of the Robertson Wine Route?  Malcolm Gluck, a UK based wine writer, once observed that if he were a grape he would like to grow up in a vineyard near Robertson where soil and climate are ideal for making excellent wines.

 

Vineyard near Robertson

Directions:

From Swellendam take the R.60 (Ashton road) and make for nearby Bonnievale (23km) and continue along the road to Robertson (27km).  This must be one of the most scenic routes in the Cape, flanked with palm trees and colourful plantings of bougainvillea, cannas and jacarandas. Stop for a tasting or lunch at some of the best wine estates in South Africa.  Two of my favourites are:

Van Loveren: sit in their beautiful shaded garden and sample some fine wines.

Viljoensdrift:  sample some more fine wines, choose your bottle, buy your picnic from their deli and enjoy both on an hour-long boat cruise on the Breede river.

Or if you wish to avoid driving and do several 'tastings' let us take you on a custom wine-tasting tour.  Your chauffeur will remain sober as a judge at all times.  You can test this by asking him to recite the following rhyme:

I'm not the pheasant plucker,
I'm the pheasant plucker's son.
I'm only plucking pheasants
'Til the pheasant plucker comes.