Cape Town → Cape Winelands loop
Here are the 10 stories you’ll meet on this journey. The history, culture and nature commentary narrated by the GPS audio guide can be read here in advance.
Wine-tasting safety briefing
On the wine loop, please make sure of thisBriefing before you set off
This route has no malaria and is tarred all the way, so the driving itself is very easy. But there’s one thing you must never let your guard down about: drink-driving. South Africa’s legal limit is a blood alcohol concentration of 0.05% — fairly strict. A winery tasting usually covers 4 to 6 wines, and if you visit three or four wineries a day, the alcohol adds up quickly. So we recommend choosing one person in your group as the non-drinking driver from the start, or making good use of wine-tour shuttles and the Wine Tram in Stellenbosch and Franschhoek. Taking it slow is what this route is all about — so please enjoy it safely.
Constantia
The wine Napoleon asked for even in exile
Constantia’s dessert wine, ‘Vin de Constance’, was highly prized by the royal courts of Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries, and records show that even after Napoleon was exiled to St Helena, he had this wine specially ordered to drink. The English author Jane Austen also mentioned it in her novel ‘Sense and Sensibility’ as a wine to soothe a broken heart. A wine once famous across Europe began right here where we’re passing.
The hidden ancestry of the governor who started the wine industry
Governor Simon van der Stel, who started Constantia’s wine industry, is known to have had Indian ancestry on his mother’s side. In the Cape Colony, a society with rigid social ranks at the time, it was rare for someone of mixed descent to rise as high as governor.
Stellenbosch
A town moved because of floods — betrayed by the ‘First’ River
The river running through Stellenbosch is called the ‘Eerste Rivier’ — the First River. The name reflects that when Simon van der Stel founded the settlement in 1679, this river was discovered as the colony’s first inland exploration route. But the river repeatedly flooded the town, and the settlement had to be repositioned several times as a result. The river named ‘First’ was also the town’s biggest headache.
The oak trees Simon van der Stel planted himself — still alive
True to the town’s nickname, ‘City of Oaks’, some of the oaks lining this avenue are said to have been planted by the town’s founder, Simon van der Stel, himself in 1679. Alive for more than 340 years, they have witnessed the town’s entire history.
Franschhoek
The fathers of wine who weren’t wine farmers
Of the Huguenot Protestants who came to the Cape around 1688 to escape religious persecution in France, not many actually had experience growing grapes. Most were merchants or craftsmen — yet the European farming methods and perseverance they brought ultimately laid the foundation of South Africa’s wine industry. Refugees with no farming experience built up an entire country’s wine industry.
The symbols hidden in the monument
In the Huguenot Monument you see now, the three arches symbolise the Holy Trinity, and the female figure holding a Bible and a broken chain symbolises religious freedom. It isn’t just a sculpture — it gives form to the history of settlers who came here fleeing persecution in search of freedom.
Paarl
The freest prison — Mandela’s last place of imprisonment
Nelson Mandela spent the last 14 months of his 27 years in prison not on Robben Island, but at Victor Verster Prison near here. Interestingly, during this time he lived not in an ordinary cell but in a separate house within the prison grounds, where he could cook for himself and tend a garden. The government, which was in the middle of negotiations, gave Mandela a kind of conciliatory environment. On 11 February 1990, he walked out of this very place to freedom.
A name meaning ‘pearl’ that came from rainwater
The name Paarl comes from 1657, when Dutch explorers saw the granite rocks behind the town glistening in the sun after rain and called them ‘the pearl’. In reality it was just wet stone, but the impression has survived as the town’s name for more than 300 years.
Wellington
A wine town named after the man who defeated Napoleon
The name of this town, ‘Wellington’, comes from the British Duke of Wellington, who defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo. And here’s a fun coincidence. Remember Constantia, which we passed early in this journey? That was the home of the very wine Napoleon longed for even in exile. So within this wine loop we’re driving, there’s both a town named after the man who beat Napoleon and the home of the wine Napoleon loved. Let’s end our Winelands journey with that little coincidence.
Drive this road yourself
Tell us your dates and group size, and we’ll recommend a 4×4 camper and travel preparations tailored to this route.