A winery is a hive of activity during harvest time: monstrous clanking machinery crushes great vat-loads of freshly-picked grapes, water sluices from altitudinous metal networks of walkways as tanks the size of elephants are cleaned in preparation, and workers tramp about in heavy boots with looks of fierce focus on their sun-beaten faces. This is harvest time within the cool enormity of a large winery and there is little else that enhances the appreciation of the resultant glass of wine than a tour through this awe-inspiring operation!

Perhaps this is why La Motte Wine Estate has opened their cellar doors to visitors for a most educational tour of how grapes are transformed into bottles of wine. They call it their “Harvest Experience”, which, at a steal of a price of R100 per person, is a whirlwind of the very best kind!

Vineyard tour

La Motte is a breath-taking wine estate located on the R45, the main drag leading into Franschhoek. Driving into the estate is a treat in itself – vineyards bursting with exuberant greenery and ripe bunches of grapes flank the road. Cultivated gardens add vibrant colour, while a misty backdrop of undulating mountains provides scale. This is an enormous estate that dates back to 1695, and it’s this history that seeps from the walls of the Cape Dutch style buildings and rotund oak trees in the central gardens.