Vegan Food & Wine Tour in Cape Town

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If you don’t do a wine tour when visiting Cape Town, you’ll miss out on more than just great wine—you’ll also miss the spectacular scenery of Stellenbosch and Franschhoek. I’m pretty sure the Cape Winelands are among the most beautiful wine regions in the world!

I decided I wanted to experience a wine tour, but the challenge was finding one that was vegan-friendly. Many people don’t realize this, but most wines are processed with non-vegan clarifying agents like casein, gelatin, and albumin. In addition, traditional wine tours often include cheese tastings, and the lunch provided isn’t typically vegan.

I tried to google “vegan wine tour Cape Town” – nothing came up. I was almost ready to give up on the idea when, after booking an Airbnb, I was given a list of tours offered for Cape Town. One caught my attention: Generous Earth, a three-day vegan food and drink immersion. The tour is run by Eric and Susan, a vegan couple who also host on Airbnb.

I had to do a bit of research because I didn’t even know Airbnb offered tours, but I learned that Airbnb hosts can now offer experiences, which is a fantastic idea since locals know the best places and activities. This is a relatively new feature on Airbnb, and not all cities offer tours.

Here is a summary of the 3-day immersion. You can read the full itinerary here.

On the first day, you’ll meet at the oldest vegan restaurant in Cape Town, have lunch there and learn more about the local vegan scene. After lunch is time for delicious vegan ice cream!

The second day is the trip to the Cape Winelands where you’ll have a wine tasting, olive oil tasting, and an exclusive three-course vegan lunch. It’s possible to do only the second day of the tour, and that’s what I did.

The final day is a picnic day, and you’ll enjoy a homemade vegan food in the beautiful surroundings of Camps Bay.

So as I mentioned, I only did the second day of the experience which included the wine tasting in Franschhoek. Eric picked me up from my hotel at 8:30 AM, and we began the 2-hour drive to Franschhoek and the Cape Winelands. Our first stop was a wine tasting at Vrede en Lust Winery, where all the wines are vegan. I had a choice between vegan champagne tasting at Colmant Winery. If I ever return to Cape Town and Franschhoek, I really want to do the champagne tasting there, because apparently, the owners are vegan!

Wine tasting

But this time I wanted to do the wine tasting, and I wasn’t disappointed. We sampled both red and white wines, and all them were excellent (even the red wines even though I usually prefer white). What’s also really cool about this winery is that they use solar power and their solar installation is one of the biggest ones in the South African wine industry.

Olive Oil Tasting

Next, we visited La Bourgogne Farm, where we sampled olive oils and olives. As a fan of olive oil, I was excited to try their products. I’m also a bit of an olive oil snob and never buy the cheapest, as the taste difference is significant. So, I was very curious to try the olive oils from South Africa, and they definitely had some great options.

Farm Sanctuary SA

After the olive oil tasting, we drove to an animal sanctuary. This wasn’t part of the tour, but Eric mentioned the place, and we decided to check it out. It wasn’t supposed to be open to the public on Thursdays, but they had changed their hours, so we were in luck. Eric mentioned that he’ll definitely include it in the tour in the future.

Farm Sanctuary SA is a home for rescued farm animals, giving them a second chance at life. I’d never visited an animal sanctuary before, but I’ve always wanted to, so I was really excited to see this place. The sanctuary is still quite new, and they’re working on some aspects, but they’ll likely take in more animals as they grow.

What was really cool about this place was Pigcasso—a painting pig. We happened to be there while Pigcasso was painting, and we got to witness this incredible moment. I couldn’t believe my eyes when she started painting! Pigcasso’s masterpieces are available for purchase, with some selling for nearly $2,000. The profits go to Farm Sanctuary SA, so Pigcasso is helping other pigs and animals have a better life.

Vegan Lunch

After seeing Pigcasso, we headed to lunch at Bread & Wine Vineyard Restaurant, which ironically is known for its great meat dishes. However, the restaurant had made a huge effort to create an exclusive 3-course vegan lunch for this tour. And I’m not exaggerating when I say this was the best lunch I’ve ever had!

There were two choices for starters, mains, and dessert, and I chose falafel, risotto, and meringue. Everything was delicious! I’m really impressed with how much effort they put into each dish, especially the dessert. The vegan meringue surprised me—it’s made from the liquid in a can of chickpeas. I’d heard of this before but had never tried it, so I was very excited to taste it. And it tasted just like regular meringue! We also had more wine, of course, and champagne to start.

Eric was an awesome tour guide, and we had some great conversations. He also gave me tips for different vegan-friendly restaurants and markets (more about these in another post!). If you’re interested in doing the tour, you can book it through Airbnb here or contact Eric directly at ecmallia [at] googlemail.com. Eric is offering an exclusive 10% discount off your booking when you mention “gabrielahereandthere.”

In conclusion, I would say that this tour was one of the highlights of my time in Cape Town. I’m a big foodie, and tasting different vegan foods is always on my list when visiting new places. Even if you’re not vegan, I can still recommend this tour, as the wines, olive oils, and food were simply delicious. It’s also a great option if you want to learn more about the vegan lifestyle and enjoy tasty food. Some people are still surprised to learn that vegan food is more than just lettuce and carrots…

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