Travel to Robertson

more earthy than the better known wineries

Robertson is located in the Overberg area of the Western Cape.

Meandering below the Langeberg Mountains, the broad Breede River Valley provides irrigation for a broad open valley of rich and very productive farmland.

The town of Robertson is the working hub of this agricultural area. Where the main R62 runs through the south side of town, it is lined by various industrial facilities, packing warehouses and bottling plants, as well as the main railway from Cape Town.

A few blocks to the north lies the town centre, a pleasant place of wide streets, arranged in a grid around an impressive Vortrekker church. The more salubrious residential streets are lined with some impressive Victorian architecture, even if much of it is hidden behind security fences and barbed wire.

To most overseas visitors, modern day Robertson may feel a little bit past its best, but we like it for the sense of this being a real working place, a change of gear from the more upmarket and touristy parts of the winelands. It feels a bit more ‘African’, if you know what we mean.

Of course that does mean that you might need to be a little bit more careful about making sure you don’t get your bag snatched, but it also means that the streets are filled with some really colourful characters.

Pay a visit to the chemists, the sports shop and the Pick-and-Pay to get a real sense of the community.

Wineries

We very rarely end up including nights here in Robertson, or anywhere else in the Overberg for that matter. The vast majority of our guests who are using the R62 inland route eastwards from Cape Town tend to depart Franschhoek in the Cape Winelands and cut right through here to a next stop in the Little Karoo, in which case there is rarely even time for a decent lunch stop either here or in the quaint village of McGregor just to the south.

But if you are seriously into your wine, then you may want to extend your touring beyond the more obvious locales of Constantia, Stellebosch and Franschhoek, extending your trip to visit the wineries of Worcester, Robertson, Barriedale and on down to the coast around Hermanus. Generally speaking, wines in these outlying areas tend to be sharper due to more acidic soils, but of course there’s much greater levels of detail and nuance to learn about and experience.

Most commonly our guests would visit the wineries of Worcester and Robertson on a day trip from Franschhoek, or when en route between Franschhoek and the Whale Coast.

Having said that, there’s at least two really interesting and unusual wineries in this area that offer accommodation, the wonderfully authentic Excelsior Manor and the intimate Fraai Uitzicht which, despite its remote location, is one of the oldest small wineries in the whole of the Cape.

we more commonly deploy nights in nearby McGregor