Channeling Bacchus at Fairview Wine & Cheese

Apart from its scenic landscapes, South Africa is also known for its wines, and so it was that we headed out to Fairview Wine and Cheese for a wine-tasting weekend activity. Fairview was about an hour’s drive away, so I’m not sure just how often it is that locals make the trip up there… but for good, super cheap wine and cheese? Yeah, we could do that (especially since Ant’s bro Matt was driving). Whee!

The view offered by this country never failed to impress (as usual). Looking at all these pictures is just making me tired out from all the suppressed anger at how unjustly natural beauty gets distributed around the world. South Africa was quite obviously the favourite child. :p

View from Fairview Wine and Cheese.

We also stumbled upon the famous Goat Tower! Ottie was beside himself with barely-contained excitement.

Photo from Ottie’s phone.

Here’s a goat hidden in the tower.

Here they are deeming us worthy of an appearance.

He knows he’s handsome.

We got some lunch prior to the wine-tasting. It was delicious:

Tender, juicy Beef Medallions for only a fraction of the price we were used to paying for such quality.

And so was the wine. For a price of 30 Rand (SGD $3, I’m not even joking), we got to enjoy a selection of six wines, cheese included:

One of those times when Ottie dresses for the occasion and looks better than I do.

I had a field day trying out a range of whites and reds.

Just a part of the huge table full of cheese plates that were constantly refreshed with different kinds of cheeses.

There was a selection of bread for sale too. Ottie and I got the munchies for a loaf of bread, but the one we chose had the unfortunate quality of dwarf bread instead of the softness we wanted to complement to cheese and wine. Nevertheless, our wine guy was very nice to source a knife for us to cut our bread during our wine-tasting.

Wefie! Me, Matt, Ottie, Andy, and Ant.

Chilled outside at the beautiful koi pond after.

Nad and LeClue joined us for some speedy wine-tasting :)

We headed over to the chocolate-tasting, but I was feeling nauseous and lightheaded when we arrived, possibly due to a combination of the afternoon heat, dehydration from the alcohol, and what I realised later was the lack of perspiration due to the dry air. Thankfully, Ottie went round the chocolate table and took each sample for me, and also helped me to request for water. The staff gave us a bottle of water on the house! That was really nice of them.

I eventually recovered after the group retreated for drinks at a pretty little clearing under the shade of some trees, while I got a bit of rest. The weird thing was that I only felt better once my hands turned to their usual clammy state; I guess there’s a reason why I’m perpetually living an embarassing state of hyperhidrosis…

Biltong is another South African souvenir to get. It’s cured meat that is made from either cow, game, ostrich, or fish. I never tried the fish ones, but those I did were highly addictive.

Outfit photos were had once I felt better. But damn those mountains are such a scene-stealer:

I thought it would have been apt to dress in black and burgundy, colours I associate with wining. Looks like donning black wasn’t the best choice, if my heat exhaustion was anything to go by, heh. Anyway, I really loved how accommodating the size of this satchel was, but as luck would have it, one of the pieces on the end of the strap broke while I was feeling unwell, possibly due to my fidgeting with it trying to keep the edges of my vision from blacking further, but hey, nothing a new, stronger clasp wouldn’t fix.

Our couple photo.

Before I end this post, I have to include two more pictures en route to Fairview:

This ridiculously amazing view.

And a shanty town (or township, as they’re called in South Africa) which spread for miles. It was eye-opening to see poverty of such scale; probably the first in my sheltered life. It was pretty humbling.

Wearing
Silver mirror sunglasses c/o Dressin
Black slit dress c/o Newdress
Red satchel handbag c/o Dressgal
Warrior crew socks – Stance c/o Shopbop
Black PU high top sneakers – Zalora

Outfit photos assisted by Ottie.