Rickety Bridge and Franschhoek

Our beautiful Base Provence Manor House is on the grounds of Rickety Bridge Vineyards and of course our wine exploration should start here.  After a wonderful breakfast we took a lovely stroll through the vineyards to the winery.  The weather was perfect and "Sunny South Africa" lived up to its name. It is the beginning of spring here of course and we saw bud break on some of the vines.  It is always amazing that seemingly dead wood comes to life again in spring.

We already knew the wines here because Wine Merchants in Winston-Salem carries them in the store.  But somehow tasting the wines where they are made makes it more special.  We had a very nice tasting of familiar wines and a few new wines that haven't been released yet.  If you don't know about "terroir", study up on it and a whole new world opens up to you.

After the tasting we walked to the town of Franschhoek.  It's a good hike, but our bodies needed the exercise! Franschhoek is a lovely, quaint little town with lots of history, art, food and wine.  There is a Huguenot Museum and Monument and we took a peek in the Nederduits Gereformeerde Kerk, built in the 19th century.

A beautiful day in Franschhoek!