This past Sunday the BF and I headed out to Stellenbosch for a late afternoon picnic session at the Vredenheim Wine Estate.   Now this is not a wine farm that I’d ever heard of before, but I got a pretty sweet deal on Ubuntudeal which got me 50% of a picnic basket for two.

The deal promised that the picnic basket would contain the following:

• A platter of cheeses, biscuits and preserves
• A selection of cold meats and salads
• Fresh bread
• Fresh fruit
• And home made muffins

My first thought was “You had me at the platter of cheeses dammit!”  I love cheese, like on a slightly disturbing level, like if I had to choose between a bag of money (which I wasn’t allowed to spend on any cheese) or a bag filled with a variety of delicious cheeses, it would be a tough one… Anyhoo, I digress.  The normal cost for such a basket of goodies for two is R260, so that means I made a cool saving of 130 buckaroos.  Love a good deal… but still not as much as I love cheese.

For those of you who, unlike me, are really into weddings… like you’ve been keeping a secret scrapbook since the age of 10 with reference images of what your dream day would look like… I’m not judging you… a lot…   You might be interested to know that the Vredenheim estate makes for a pretty descent wedding venue.  Check out their kitted out reception hall:

Not sure if they had a wedding there the night before or if they just keep it in this state as a selling tactic... but hey, it was pretty.

We picked up our basket, bought some water & Vredenheim sparkling grape juice (cause drinks aren’t included & of course you can also buy wine with it being a wine farm and all) and headed off to explore the gardens and find the perfect chill spot.  Here’s what our basket looked like:

Ta da!

And here’s a couple of shots of the picnic area:

Beautiful right?  We found a shady spot overlooking the water, proceeded to stuff our faces and then slipped into a mini food coma.  It was absolute bliss.  By the time we left the sun was starting to set and I was lucky enough to snap this awesome shot before heading back into town:

Quality's a bit crappy - I was a total knob and left my camera at home. So had to make due with my BB, which has a really crappy camera...

To be 100% honest, I did think the usual R260 price tag was a bit steep for salads, meats and stuff – but like the BF says “you’re paying for the overall experience”.  So I can’t really argue with that…  we did have a great time.

To book your own picnic basket – contact the Vredenheim restaurant, Hudson’s on 021 881 3590.  Just remember to take your own picnic blanket along.  They’ll sort you out with cutlery, glasses, etc.

xxx