Cape Winelands jewel — oak-lined streets, Cape Dutch gables, and a Shiraz that rivals Rhône
Stellenbosch is South Africa's wine capital and one of its most beautiful towns, 50km east of Cape Town in the Eerste River valley. The streets are lined with enormous Cape oaks planted by the original Dutch settlers, and the architecture — whitewashed Cape Dutch gables, thatched roofs, and H-shaped manor houses on wine estates — is some of the most distinctive in the world. Rustenberg, Kanonkop, and Meerlust produce Cabernet Sauvignons and Pinotage that compete globally; the university town buzz makes it one of South Africa's most cosmopolitan small cities.
Stellenbosch was founded by Governor Simon van der Stel in 1679 — the second oldest town in South Africa after Cape Town — and named after himself. The Dutch East India Company established the settlement as a farming community to supply the Cape colony, and the French Huguenot refugees who arrived in 1688 brought winemaking expertise that would define the Winelands. The town survived the Anglo-Boer War largely intact and its 17th–18th century streetscape is among the best preserved in the southern hemisphere.