Wine tasting in Hermanus with Hermanus Wine Hoppers

Hermanus. Sea, whales and great seafood. But wineries? I had never connected the two. While planning our trip we came across Hermanus Wine Hoppers. Put simply, they get you to the wineries, you do the rest.

Here’s how it works:

• Hermanus Wine Hoppers picks you up from your Hermanus accomodation at 10:30 a.m.;
• Until 4:30 p.m. They take you to up to 6 wineries;
• The driver ensures that you can get into the winery, I.e. Not sitting around waiting. If the winery is busy, they simply take you to the next winery and come back later;
• A driver comes to pick you up after half an hour. If you are not ready he simply moves on and another comes half an hour later, continuing until 4:30, or you are ready to leave;
• They deliver you back to your accomodation at the end of the tour;
• You pay the cost of the wine tasting at each winery;
• A couple of wineries offer food, so you can get some lunch, with one, Creation Wines, needing pre-booking.

Our Wine Hopping Trip

Well, we managed three wineries and lunch. And then it was 4:30. One thing that has to be said, when you taste wines you are supposed to spit out the sample. Probably like most non-aficionados, we swallow!

I am not going to try and critique all of the wines we tasted. You’ll need to do the trip to do that. Here are the wineries we visited.

Hermanuspietersfontein

Hermanuspietersfontein Wine Cellar takes its name from the original name of the village of Hermanus, shortened by the postmaster in 1902. The wines are produced on their farm, Sondagskloof. Read about it on their website.

True to their Afrikaans heritage, all Hermanpietersfontein wines have Afrikaans names.

Very professional in their approach, we were offered 4 wines to taste of a selection of 7 for ZAR30.

Our favourites were the light Kaalvoet Meisie Sauvignon Blanc and the Shiraz blend Skoonma.

Whalehaven

Whalehaven were very laid back, and, in our view, the best ambience of all of the wineries.

For the wine taster Whalehaven offer just wine to taste or, for ZAR60 a wine and chocolate matching taste session. This was our choice and well worth it. The chocolates, with their specific flavours are produced exclusively for Whalehaven, who boast a number of awards received for their efforts.

Our favourite combination here was the Pinot Noir matched with the Rooibos and rose chocolate.

Other flavours:

• Abalone Chenin Blanc matched with orange blossom white chocolate. The wine is named for the support which the winery gives to the prevention of poaching of abalone along the Hermanus coast.
• A Merlot matched with lavender chocolate. The combination delivers and interesting mint flavour which would go well with a roast lamb dinner.
• Pinotage with a dark chocolate.

Bouchard Finlayson

The Bouchard Finlayson winery is situated in the beautiful Hemel-en-Aarde (translated as Heaven-and-Earth) valley. It comes across as old, but at the same time modern and sophisticated. Bouchard Finlayson claims to be the most awarded boutique winery in South Africa.

Bouchard Finlayson offered 3 wines to taste for ZAR20, or 6 for ZAR40.

My thoughts on their wine:

• Galpin pinot Noir – very smooth. I could drink that regularly.
• Hannibal – a unique blend of Italian and French styles. Not bad at all.

Crocodiles Lair Chardonnay – I am not a fan of Chardonnay, but this was my favourite at this winery.

Creation

Not far up the road from Bouchard Finlayson, on the Hemel-en-Aarde ridge, we came to Creation Wines.

At the beginning of the tour we had been asked if we wanted lunch, and it was pointed out that we would need to book. Hermanus Wine Hoppers sorted out the booking for us. So this was our lunch stop.

Creation offer a few choices of wine and food matching. The biggest one being “The Story of Creations”. This is a 7 course, small plate meal, each plate being matched with a sample of appropriate wine. cost is ZAR 395.

As we were hungry we chose the larger plate, 3 course meal, again with matched wine samples being served. The diner does, of course have the option to buy the wine by the glass.

This really was fine dining, with superb food and matching wine served with a very professional chat about the wine. The wine samples were small, but there was no hesitation in providing another sample when a glass was empty. Cost was on enquiry, but came to about £25 each.

Heading Home after an Excellent Day Out

The meal at Creation Wines was a great experience, in a beautiful setting. We took our time, and spent spent 3 hours there, finishing and being picked up by Wine Hoppers at 4:30. No time to do any more wineries. I think we were all “wined out” at that point anyway.

Hermanus Wine Hoppers deliver top class service. They are very attentive, but unobtrusive, not interfering with the pleasure of the day. Transport is safari style in a bakkie (light pickup) properly set up with seats and canvas canopy. When we hit some cold and Windy weather on the Hemel-en-Aarde road the driver was very quick to ensure that we were all dry and had blankets to keep warm.

Definitely a tour I would do again, and highly recommend.