Steenberg - Constantia

This is so far one of my favourite wineries!!!! You should definitely visit this winery, check out why.....

The grounds are just stunning, the views are amazing and everything is done to perfection.

They have two restaurants, Catharina's and Bistro 1682. The Catharina's appears to be more formal and expensive. Here is a photo of Catharina's on a Sunday :-)

This is the view from the car park of Catharina's.

After we checked out Catharina's, we made our way to the wine tasting place which was at the same place as the restaurant Bistro 1682. When you walk in, there is a big round wine bar in the middle of the room. There are fantastic views from the wine tasting room. The wine tasting was surprisingly free!!! The guy serving us was just fab. He was enthusiastic, had great knowledge of the wines and was very friendly.

I thoroughly enjoyed the wines on offer. I tried four of the five sauvignon blancs and rated them as following. My favourite was the Super Premium Steenberg Sauvignon Blanc 2008 (R70 on special), then the Super Premium Steenberg Sauvignon Blanc 2010 (R95), followed by the Super Premium Steenberg HMS Rattlesnake Sauvignon Blanc 2010 (R80), and last of all the Premium Klein Steenberg Sauvignon Blanc 2010 (R45).

Other wines we tried were the  Premium Klein Steenberg Rose 2009 (R44) which was nice, light, and easy to drink. The Super Premium Steenberg Shiraz 2008 (R125) was not heavy, not spicy and very smooth. Even though we enjoyed many of the wines, we only bought a bottle of hanepoot this time round. I am hoping to buy many more on our next visit. For the record, most people expect the Hanepoot to be very sweet, but in fact, it is not so sweet, and is a very easy drinking wine. You should definitely try it.

After the tasting we met friends for lunch at the Bistro 1682. Our table had a fabulous view. There is indoor and outdoor seating, if its not too hot, be sure to sit outside, its just fab!! If it is hot, try get a table inside but near the outdoor tables (in other words you are inside, but have the views of an outside table). I love the water 'pool' feature outside, it just tops the place!!

This is the view from the table we sat at.

This is part of the outdoor water feature.

The view from the outside tables:

Now lets not forget the food. It was baie lekker (fantastic)!!! There were 7 of us, and we all loved our entrees, mains and desserts!! Yes, we went for a three course meal and went all out. We all loved the Sauvignon Blanc with our meals, it just topped off the whole lunch. Here are a few photos of some of the food we ordered:

If you come to Cape Town and can visit only one winery, make this it!!!