As you know by now, sometimes here on the blog we take a little detour from antique jewellery and venture out to look at other interesting things that are antique-related. Well, being here in Cape Town, I thought that a trip to one of the beautiful wine farms was in place, and so today we are visiting Vredenheim Wildlife & Winery in Stellenbosch, Cape Town.
Some beautiful summer flowers at the winery…
Vredenheim Wildlife & Winery
We were admiring the Manor House, which was built in 1789 by Paul Roux and declared a National Monument in 1975. I just love Cape architecture, where the most prominent features are the gables; you can see a beautiful example of this in the photo above. In the 20’s the building was subject to many Victorian influences – like so many other Cape buildings – for example the old thatched roof was replaced with corrugated iron and lights were added. In 1940/41 the house was restored to its former glory, which is very fortunate for us, as we can still admire its beauty until this very day!
Wine tasting at Vredenheim Wildlife & Winery
We of course started our visit with a wine tasting and tried some amazing wines… the one that stayed in my mind was a lovely rose wine:
“Light and inviting, with oodles of fresh strawberries and candy-floss to entice your tastebuds!“
Vredenheim Wildlife & Winery Rose Wine
Another favourite was a red wine called Gracious Lady:
“Vredenheim’s beloved matriarch Rikie Bezuidenhout, a timeless woman loved by all who meet her, is celebrated with this exclusive red blend.”
Vredenheim Wildlife & Winery – wine tasting
We then continued to the restaurant:
The restaurant at Vredenheim Wildlife & Winery
… and enjoyed a lovely lunch in the garden, under a stunning old tree all dressed in Chinese lanterns:
Vredenheim Wildlife & Winery garden
We ended up buying a few bottles of Sauvignon Blanc that we actually brought along to the restaurant and enjoyed together with our lunch:
Vredenheim Wildlife & Winery garden
Orange irises in the most beautiful outfits
A stunning flower garden
At 2:30pm it was time to head to the back of the wine farm, to see the Great Cats getting fed. We soon ended up by the tiger enclosure:
Titan and Jessica the Vredenheim tigers – who knew thar tigers enjoyed playing in water this much?!
There are less than 2000 Bengal Tigers in the world today and it is an endangered species. Vredenheim welcomed two cubs in early 2012: Jessica and Titan, and they now live a safe and happy life here at the park. On the day that we visited the farm it was incredibly hot, so the gentleman who looks after the tigers brought out a water hose – to the great delight of Jessica:
Seeing Jessica chase the water was like watching any pet cat play with a piece of string!
This is what I call a happy tiger!
Jessica the Tiger playing in water at Vredenheim Wildlife & Winery, South Africa
After this magnificent show where we also saw three lion cubs – two brown and one white – as well as a white male lion and a female, that are of course more indigenous species to South Africa. A cheetah and a leopard were also relaxing in the shade and we then continued our walk past some buffalo, before we finally stopped to admire the zebras – and an ostrich:
The cutest bunch of zebras chilling with an ostrich
So if you are heading over to South Africa one day this is definitely one wine farm that I can recommend that you visit. A beautiful mixture of all things South African; from animals to glorious architecture, fantastic wine and great food!
Decades of Elegance 