Page 159 - WINE DINE AND TRAVEL SUMMER 2019 PORTUGAL

Hotel and Spa, a history-rich retreat on the smitten. You’ll likely be too as you follow our
grounds of the Cape’s first farm. Surrounded footsteps through this bewitching place.
by vines and home to its own winery and two
top-rated restaurants, Steenberg is nestled in Franschhoek Wine Valley
the heart of Constantia where top-rated vint-
ners and restaurateurs draw daytrippers from
For our visit, cloudless skies and autumn
Cape Town as well as knowing visitors from
heat basked this valley in the glowing light
across the globe.
artists extol. Some of it
During our stay
undoubtedly radiates
there, romance was in
from the brilliant white-
the air. At lunch one
washed buildings that
day, gazing out at the
dot the landscape and
garden, we watched a
line streets in the small
man fall on one knee to
towns. This traditional
propose. At a nearby ta-
Cape Dutch architec-
ble, another couple
ture, often roofed with
hugged and kissed as
thick black thatch, adds
they shared a cham-
a sophisticated Euro-
pagne toast with
pean ambiance to the
friends. Bubbles - one of
valley’s pastoral setting.
the hallmarks of Steen-
Among the first to
berg Winery - spread
see promise in the area’s climate and fertile
joy everywhere. More toasts - along with
soils, early Dutch settlers influenced more
chocolates and rose petals - were to come. By
than the look of the land when they welcomed
the end of our Winelands stay, we were totally
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