Food & drink
The Cape Winelands, Stellenbosch, Franschhoek and Paarl
Inland from Cape Town, three old towns sit among the vineyards under the mountains. Stellenbosch was founded by a Dutch governor, Franschhoek by French refugees, and Paarl was named after a rock that shines like a pearl in the rain.
By Walter Pellow2 November 20265 min read
The Cape Winelands are the part of South Africa that looks least like the rest of it. Vineyards run up to the foot of steep mountains, old farmhouses sit among oaks, and the towns have the settled air of places that have been making wine for more than three centuries. Three of them carry the story between them: Stellenbosch, Franschhoek and Paarl, each with its own founders, and each with a different reason to be there.
Stellenbosch, the town of oaks
Stellenbosch came first. In November 1679 Simon van der Stel, newly in charge of the Dutch settlement at the Cape, camped beside the Eerste River, and the town that grew there was named after him. It is usually called the second-oldest town in South Africa, after Cape Town itself, and its history is a large part of why people come.
Van der Stel planted oaks along its streets and around its homesteads, so many that the town became known as Eikestad, the city of oaks, and the oaks are still what you notice first: deep shade over white-walled houses and the streets of the old centre. It is also a university town, which keeps it busier and younger than its age would suggest.
The wine is all around. In 1971 three local farmers, from the estates of Simonsig, Delheim and Spier, founded the Stellenbosch Wine Route, the first official wine route in the country, with a handful of members; it now has well over a hundred. The idea of driving from farm to farm, tasting as you go, which visitors now take for granted across the Winelands, began here.
Paarl takes its name from the great granite domes above the town, which are said to glisten like pearls after rain.
Franschhoek, the French corner
Franschhoek, in its own valley between the mountains, was settled by French Huguenots, Protestant refugees who arrived at the Cape in 1688. The governor gave them land along the valleys, and the Dutch called the place Franschhoek, the French corner. Their arrival brought a sharp rise in the planting of vines in the valley, and many of the settlers named their farms after the regions of France they had left. Many of those names are still on the farm gates.
In the town stands the Huguenot Monument, built of Paarl granite and unveiled in 1948 to mark the settlers' arrival. If one town in the Winelands is made for a long lunch, I would choose this one.
Paarl, the pearl
Paarl, to the north, takes its name from the great granite domes above the town, which are said to glisten like pearls after rain. The story goes that in 1657 a Dutch party led by Abraham Gabbema saw the rock shining after a storm and called it the diamond and pearl mountain. The diamond was dropped. The pearl stayed.
On the slopes of Paarl Mountain stands the Afrikaans Language Monument, designed by Jan van Wijk and opened in 1975 to mark fifty years since Afrikaans became an official language, its shape drawn from the granite rocks around it. Paarl is also home to KWV, the wine farmers' co-operative founded in 1918, which has its headquarters and main cellars here.
Which tours go there
It is worth being plain about this. Of the three Winelands towns, the tours in the catalogue reach only Stellenbosch: none of them lists Franschhoek or Paarl among its places. If those two matter to you, they are the sort of thing to ask the operator about, or to see on a day of your own from Cape Town.
Explore Worldwide's South Africa's Garden Route is eleven nights. Its places include Cape Town, Cape Peninsula National Park, Simon's Town, Stellenbosch, Hermanus, Betty's Bay, Barrydale, Oudtshoorn, George, Sedgefield, Knysna and Plettenberg Bay.
Travelsphere's Ultimate South Africa is sixteen nights and combines the Cape with the north-east of the country. Its places include Cape Town, the Cape Peninsula, Stellenbosch, Oudtshoorn, Knysna, Gqeberha, the Battlefields, Greater Kruger, Kruger National Park and Johannesburg.
Explore's thirteen-night South Africa's Garden Route & Kruger includes Johannesburg, Soweto, Kruger National Park, Hazyview, Port Elizabeth, Tsitsikamma National Park, Knysna, Hermanus, Betty's Bay, Stellenbosch, Cape Town and Storms River among its places.
In Stellenbosch, walk under the oaks first and taste afterwards. The order matters, and so, in the Winelands, does the lunch.
By Walter Pellow, the name Atlas & Passage’s editorial team writes under. Prices and dates in the trips below come from the operators and can change.
