The wine tradition in Paarl is older than
roots of aging Oak Trees that line its Cape Dutch streets. The first European settlers arrived at Cape of Good Hope in 1652, planting seeds that solidified Cape's reputation as a wine growing heaven. Now that work has already been done, what else can you and I do but savour delicate fruits pressed with decades of winemaking experience and travel newly formed routes leading us to finest wines in world.
Forget majesty of Drakensberg Mountains, try to ignore historic monuments perched loftily upon pearly hills, kind of wine tasting to be done in Paarl will require every ounce of your concentration.
Now that we know what we are going to be doing in Paarl, apart from enjoying scenery, let's make a journey into winelands, delving into present day winemaking communities, uncovering their interesting attributes and tracing those lively wines to hideaways so often missed by multitude.
Along way, if we're lucky, we may make acquaintance of a genuine Garagiste, a class of heretic garage winemakers shunned in France by old school traditionalists because of stir their independently crafted wines create. There might be a hint along way as to where we might discover one of those who make these “Vins de Garage”. The mixture of Paarl's perfect climate and their special skills is sure to be very rewarding.
We start our journey at entrance of Hugenot Tunnel, breach to longest wine route in world, also known as Route 62. But we go no further; what we are mostly concerned with is infamous Red Route...
The Red Route
The Red Route, as you can imagine, is named because of large amount and quality of red wines along its relaxing meander. It was formed by a collaboration of wine producers known as Paarl Vintners (Wine Merchants). The Vintners diligently plotted a wine route for an estimated 24 participants, all found within Paarl Valley. One or two of these include De Zoete Inval Estate owned by Frater family, who have been making wine here for more than 115 years. The Rhebokskloof Estate has also been producing wine since 1692. Unfortunately, wine from that early period has already been consumed.
The Red Route is without question a collection of most renowned wine producers in world. Any effort made in finding them would not in any way be an inconvenience to your taste buds. The Red Route's Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz are undoubtedly best in world.
Fairview
Not strictly a wine route, Red Route is also, by happy coincidence, a cheese route. Which brings us to our next stop along our journey - Fairview.
