Napa Valley on the Cape : The fruits of vintage vineyards draw wine fans to the tasting rooms of these lush valleys

In South Africa, wine is as much a tourist attraction as Cape Town’s Table Mountain, the endless waves that surfers live for and the game parks where giraffes, elephants and lions have pedestrian right-of-way.

By the time I arrived here last March, I was already familiar with South African wines. Yet I was unprepared for the beauty of the Cape’s wine country, which is as enchanting as it is surprising.

Imagine an afternoon on the 1,000-acre Spier Wine Estate in a lush valley on the banks of the Eerste River outside Stellenbosch, a 30-minute drive east of Cape Town. I had been invited by Spier’s director of food and beverage, Tim Cumming, whom I had known when he worked in Hong Kong, where I was living. But a personal invitation is not necessary to visit Spier. It’s open to the public for tastings, tours and cultural events.

Spier’s owner, a South African businessman and former member of Parliament named Dick Enthoven, bought the winery in 1993 and invested $30 million in the sprawling 17th century farm in an attempt to create a cultural village where opera, the arts, food and wine could be enjoyed. The original estate includes a 113-year-old manor house, stables, a coach house, slave quarters and the oldest wine cellar in South Africa. Within two years, Enthoven had added a conference facility, a theater, an equestrian center and a wine center. On the agenda is a golf course and a hotel.

Music and drama festivals are year-round but peak during the South African summer, December through March. (Tickets and schedules can be obtained by mail through government tourist offices and travel agents in major cities in South Africa.)

On this fine day there were nine of us; half from Hong Kong, the rest from Europe and South Africa. Our mutual connection was Cumming, who had recently returned home to South Africa after 25 years in Asia and Europe, and his friend Ann Wallis Brown, a public relations consultant from Cape Town.

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Our hostess wore something breezy; our host wore a boater. She filled our Champagne flutes with blush sparkling wine (a feathery Pierre Jourdan Cuvee Belle Rose); he identified the wildflowers and fish in the stream. Each of us received a hamper packed with linen and silver, smoked salmon and caviar, miniature baguettes filled with paper-thin slices of roast beef, a mixed salad, tiny fruit tarts, cheese and chocolates. I wanted to freeze the afternoon forever.

The wine buffs raised their glasses to the sun and inspected the Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay from local producers. They swilled ruby-colored Cabernets and Merlots and guessed vintages. We ate and clinked and exchanged safari stories. Three hours later, our host suggested we dash off to Spier’s Wine Center before it closed.

When I asked for a recommendation, the man behind the chest-high display of bottles answered Pinotage: a dense, complex red, unique to his country.

The man dispensing advice was the wine center’s director, Jabulani Ntshangase, the first black South African to earn wine credentials overseas and return home to run an international wine operation. The recipient of a U.N. scholarship, Ntshangase earned a business degree from Long Island University in New York, eventually becoming manager of Acker Merrall, a respected wine store in Manhattan.

Smitten by the language of wine and its heritage and commerce, Ntshangase got involved in the import and export business between the United States and South Africa. He returned to South Africa last year after living in the United States for 18 years.

At Spier, Ntshangase is overseeing development of the estate’s wine center. The retail shop, which contains thousands ofbottles, including wines from 15 estates in California, is also a classroom for aspiring wine merchants.

“The wine industry here is changing. But before we market abroad, we need to educate here. We have fine wines, but young people need to be trained first, before we send them overseas.” In an effort to do so, Ntshangase has helped create work exchange programs for oenology degree candidates at the University of Stellenbosch, where he is a trustee. It offers the country’s first wine study degree program.

Yet wine is not a new product for South Africa. The country’s wine industry dates back to 1655 when early Dutch settlers transplanted the first grapevines from France in their adopted country. The French Huguenots, who began arriving in 1688 and settled mainly in the Franschhoek Valley, contributed their skills by refining the wine production process.

Today, South Africa is the world’s eighth-largest wine-producing region, known for its fruity Merlot, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Shiraz, Rhein Riesling, sparklers and dessert wines, as well as for Pinotage.

Winery labels such as Rustenberg, Rozendal and Kanonkop, Simonsig, Thelema, Villiera, Klein Constantia and Neil Ellis are high profile. Some are sold in the United States although few seem particularly visible in Los Angeles, where they must compete for shelf space with blends from Napa, Sonoma and the rest of California’s stellar wine country.

A good bottle of South African wine purchased in the United States will run between $15 and $40, but there are others, quite drinkable, that sell for about $8. In South Africa, however, a good wine costs only $12, if purchased at the source.

The picnic group decided to visit two other nearby wineries that day. Everyone wanted to try the Pinotage from Kanonkop Estate and the Cabernet and Chardonnays from Thelema Mountain Vineyards.

We lucked out and found chief winemaker, Beyers Truter, at Kanonkop, a lovely estate in Stellenbosch.

There we squeezed around a wooden table in the tasting room, which could have been a church basement with its dimly lighted brick walls, low ceiling and worn stairs, while Truter--who is known as the father of Pinotage--answered our questions. Sensing our collective enthusiasm, the winemaker insisted on uncorking an award-winning bottle of Pinotage. While we oohed and ahed at the superior blend, Truter explained that Pinotage is made from Pinot Noir and Cinsault grapes, resulting in a red wine that is sweeter, rounder and slightly more acidic than a Cabernet Sauvignon.

It was dinner time when we barged in on winemaker Gyles Webb, who was about to lock up Thelema’s tasting room and go home.

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Webb’s in-laws, Edna and Dave McLean, purchased Thelema in 1983 and together with Webb and his wife, Barbara, nursed what had been a neglected fruit farm into a gem of a vineyard.

Webb had abandoned his accounting profession in the mid ‘70s after his brother-in-law introduced him to Puligny-Montrachet. That experience changed his career. He returned to school and earned a degree in viticulture and oenology from the University of Stellenbosch. He subsequently went to California and worked in the Napa Valley with winemaker Joe Heitz.

Although 70% of Thelema’s wines are white, wine authorities consider its Cabernet Sauvignon-Merlot and Chardonnay to be among the finest in South Africa. But the winery’s annual production is so small (25,000 cases) that it cannot meet demands from Europe and the U.S.; 50% never leaves South Africa.

During our visit, Webb opened several bottles, passed water biscuits, then perched himself on the windowsill. While we sipped, the sun slipped behind the 150-year-old oak trees behind him. Dutch master Vermeer would have appreciated the light on the shell bleached walls.

But during my eight-day stay in Cape Town, I visited 15 vineyards in a period of only three days. My conclusion is that it is easier and more restful to do three or four in a single outing.

Planning a solo excursion is easy, though, thanks to wine tour maps offered free at hotels and tourist offices. I opted to take one organized wine tour and hire a driving guide for another.

I was in good company. Touring wine country is the most popular tourist pastime in South Africa, drawing nearly 1 million visitors a year to Cape Town, according to CapTour, a nonprofit tourism marketing organization of Greater Cape Town. There are about a dozen districts recognized as wine-producing areas, but those around Cape Town produce the best wine, according to locals, and they are the most convenient to visit. They include Constantia, Paarl, Stellenbosch, Franschhoek and Walker Bay.

The Stellenbosch Wine Route, established in 1971, has 23 private cellars and five co-operatives.

Stellenbosch and the Franschhoek Valley are visually reminiscent of the Napa Valley with what could be the Rocky Mountains on the horizon.

Because of my cram-it-all-in agenda, there wasn’t much time to stroll around Stellenbosch, visit the wine museum or cycle around the university campus. Instead, I devoted my time to finding a wine tour.

I found that tour prices range from $24 for a half-day trip (two wineries, no lunch) to $75 (six wineries plus lunch).

The half-day tour I took didn’t exceed my expectations. It turned out to be a swallow and dash deal that moved with stop-watch punctuality. I wouldn’t necessarily repeat the experience, although I would revisit Neethlingshof, which reminded me of a beautiful thoroughbred horse farm in Kentucky.

On the recommendation of the manager of my B&B;, I hooked up with Andre Morgenthal, a 24-year-old tour guide who specializes in cycling and wine tours.

The graduate of the Cape Wine Academy and native of Stellenbosch works part-time at Village Cycles and runs Village Wine Tours. He listened to my wish list and set our departure time for 8 the next morning.

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Some wineries have free tastings but most charge (usually five tastings for $2). Some wineries require an appointment and most are closed on Sunday. But Andre knew the owners of the wineries and many of their children were his classmates.

So when we arrived without warning to try the Pinotage at Vriesenhof winery in Stellenbosch, owner Jan Coetzee, who was rushing out the door, turned over the keys of the tasting room to Andre. We were invited to help ourselves to any bottles that were open.

The towns of Stellenbosch, Franschhoek, Constantia and Paarl--our wine route--blended together while Andre entertained me with local gossip, wine facts and tales of Cape Town social life.

We visited nine estates, including Fairview, where tastings of the winery’s goat cheese are as popular as its wines. As memorable as the Cabernet Sauvignon at Neil Ellis Wines in Stellenbosch was, it was hard to leave Ellis, not just because of the wine, but because of the picturesque estate itself, with its swans and weeping willows.

Andre insisted that our final stop be for the sparkling wine for which Clos Cabriere Estate in Franschhoek is famous. He raved about the owner, Achim von Arnim, a local character who prides himself in decapitating bottles with a saber. Unfortunately, von Arnim was not to be found, but the manager pulled the feat off without a mishap. The winery’s pride, Cuvee Belle Rose, named after the founder’s mother, tasted like peaches.

Amid the din and chatter of patrons and the aroma of olive oil, a visitor can learn about South African wine by eavesdropping at Decameron Italian Restaurant, a winemakers’ hangout.

Over huge portions of pasta and a forest of wine bottles, the winemakers shout opinions across tables, nod, pass wine bottles via obliging waitresses and offer tastes to unfamiliar patrons.

Though the wine community is tight-knit and friendly, a pecking order was obvious that night. If your name was Gyles Webb or Beyers Truter, corkage was waved.

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GUIDEBOOK: Vintage Cape Town

Getting there: American and British Air fly to Cape Town from LAX, with a change of planes in either New York or Miami (on American) or in London (on British Air). Advance-purchase, round-trip fares start at $2,940, but fares are scheduled to rise Dec. 1.

Wineries and wine estates: Clos Cabriere, P.O. Box 245, Franschhoek 7690; telephone locally 021-876-2630; fax 021-876-3390.

Kanonkop Wine Estate, P.O. Box 19, Elsenburg 7607; tel. 021-884- 4656, fax 021-884-4719.

Klein Constantia Estate, P.O. Box 375, Constantia 7848; tel. 021-794-5188, fax 021-794-2464.

Simonsig Estate, P.O. Box 6, Koelenhof 7605; tel. 021-882-2044, fax 021-882-2545.

Spier, P.O. Box 1078, Stellenbosch 7599; tel. 021-881-3096, fax 021-881-3634.

Thelema Mountain Vineyards, P.O. Box 2234, Dennesig 7601; tel. 021-885-1924, fax 021-885-1800.

Where to stay: I stayed at Dorpshuis Stellenbosch Country House, 22 Dorp St., P.O. Box 999, Stellenbosch 7600; from the U.S., tel. 011- 27-21-883-9881, fax 011-27-21- 883-9884. Doubles, including breakfast, from $125.

Wine tours: Village Wine Tours, Andre Morgenthal, 3 Victoria St., Stellenbosch 7600; tel. 082-658- 3883, fax 027-21-883-8594. Tours prices start at $50 per person.

Wine shop: Vaughan Johnson’s Wine Shop, PierHead, Dock Road, Waterfront, Cape Town (there’s another in Johannesburg).

Where to eat: Decameron Italian Restaurant, 50 Plein St., Stellenbosch 7600; tel. 021-883-3331.

Safety: For more information, see Travel Advisory on page L14.

Books to read: “South African Wines 1996” by John Platter (Mitchell Beazley, London, $15.95).

For more information: CapTour (Cape Tourism Authority) Information Center, Adderley Street, Cape Town (adjacent to the railroad station); tel. 021-418-5214, fax 21-418-5227.

South African Tourist Board, 9841 Airport Blvd., Suite 1524, Los Angeles, CA 90045; tel. (800) 782-9772 or (310) 641-8444; fax (310) 641-5812.

--M.S.