chardonnay

chardonnay

Every day I spend in this country is better than before. I love it. The people, land, spirit and history are all so beautiful. And then there’s the wine. * Since this is a blog for UFIC must say that I participate in Law School program, so we all in our mid to late twenties, and they are all legal drinking age – thankfully.

Anyway, Cherlyn ordered our hiking guides, and Mel Risdon, to coordinate a trip through wine, known as Stellenbosch. They picked us up in two large vans early Saturday morning and we went to the first vineyard, which was about 45 minutes outside Cape Town. We went through the outskirts of town, and then through areas of flat, barren land. These debris fields were absolutely swamped with metal sheds – shanty towns. They were all painted in bright colors, and there were clothes drying on lines between almost every one of them. It was very humiliating to see the stark contrast between the wealthy South Africans able to dress up in official FIFA jerseys to participate in games, and those who barely had a roof to sleep under. And so was our group that American students who are trying to absorb it all.

We arrived at our first winery around 10 AM. It was called Spier, and it was fantastic. There was a traditional African restaurant, Moya, as some locals told us that we are back to later. Most of us were initially more enthusiastic about visiting the cheetah enclosure than on touring the vineyard. There were about 15 cheetahs in gigantic gated fences. We arrived just in time to see feeding time. It was so strange to see these huge animals with sharp teeth eats raw meat out of a metal tin, like a house cat. Before I knew it was time to go. I had spent so much time in front of the cheetahs that I barely had enough time to slip into the wine shop and buy a bottle of Cabernet. The Tripod bought three bottles at each vineyard, while the grandiose plans to implement our own taste later.

The next stop was a small vineyard called Allee Bleue, which was small and very Mediterranean. The buildings were stark white with blue accents, and it had a lovely view of Table Mountain. We had a decent flavor with a very nice host named Francine, I think. Our group seems to gravitate towards red wines, which is definitely ok with me. We have all bought bottles (I bought a Pinotage, a South African hybrid of pinot noir and hermitage) and we headed to the next vineyard.

Our third vineyard was called Die Bergkelter and it serves primarily as a distributor for other local wineries. It has a huge aging and storage facilities are built into a mountain in order to maintain the perfect temperature to grow wine – about 56 degrees. The grounds were beautiful, and their basement had huge barrels that hold about 400 bottles of wine as they get older, all of which were made of wood harvested worldwide. We were the first group allowed in the basement after a very recent renovation. Our guide pointed out a bottle of Cabernet, and explained that it was quite pricy at around 300 Rand. We were all shocked, because to spend $ 35 on a nice bottle of wine in America would be totally steal.

Our last (and collective favorite) stop was Fairview, which reportedly has the best views in South Africa. When we arrived, I made a beeline to the goat enclosure. There were three goats, climbing a large spiral staircase and generally milling about. Two of them were hamming it up, and pressed her nose against tourists snapped photos. They smelled like goat cheese, which made me a little bit uncomfortable when I then mash of chèvre.

We were all starving so we went to the restaurant for a late lunch. Mel and Risdon very nice bought each table a bottle of wine and some of us ordered spectacles of our individual favorites. Laura and I wanted to eat everything on the menu, but we settled on sharing a cheese plate (thank you, goats), a curried chicken potpie and a Mozzarella Panini. The potpie was to die for. I only recently learned to love curry, so I enjoy the fact that South Africans seem to put it in everything. Seriously, it was so delicious that I will try to repeat the recipe when I get home. Lunch was just fantastic.

We meanders around the winery grounds, and found the vineyard, a vegetable garden, and a scarecrow dressed in FIFA gear. So we went to the tasting facility, where we had a list of about 25 wines and instructed to stop at various stations to request samples of our favorite grape varieties. I loved that we were invited to sample what we loved, because I could just stick to red. We were also invited to stop at the cheese station to learn about pairings, but I was still so full from lunch, it would have been a struggle to eat anything more.

In our last tasting, we headed back to Scotia House, a little refreshed after half of us fell asleep in the car. We also to a location on Long Street called The Neighborhood Bar to watch USA v England game. It was nice to run into so many American citizens and ex-patriots. I made the colossal mistake wearing Brice’s Arsenal jersey, so I kept getting hugs and high fives from English fans, and snowing and spit from U.S. fans. Lesson learned: Just because it is red, it does not denote allegiance to America. As long as I’m here saying my team is Bafana Bafana!

Every day I spend in this country is better than before. I love it. The people, land, spirit and history are all so beautiful. And then there’s the wine. * Since this is a blog for UFIC must say that I participate in Law School program, so we all in our mid to late twenties, and they are all legal drinking age – thankfully.

Anyway, Cherlyn ordered our hiking guides, and Mel Risdon, to coordinate a trip through wine, known as Stellenbosch. They picked us up in two large vans early Saturday morning and we went to the red wine first vineyard, which was about 45 minutes outside Cape Town. We went through the outskirts of town, and then through areas of flat, barren land. These debris fields were absolutely swamped with metal sheds – shanty towns. They were all painted in bright colors, and there were clothes drying on lines between almost every one of them. It was very humiliating to see the stark contrast between the wealthy South Africans able to dress up in official FIFA jerseys to participate in games, and those who barely had a roof to sleep under. And so was our group that American wine cheese students who are trying to absorb it all.

We arrived at our first winery around 10 AM. It was called Spier, and it was fantastic. There was a traditional African restaurant, Moya, as some locals told us that we are back to later. Most of us were initially more enthusiastic about visiting the cheetah enclosure than on touring the vineyard. There were about 15 cheetahs in gigantic gated fences. We arrived just in time to see feeding time. It was so strange to see these huge animals with sharp teeth eats raw meat out of a metal tin, red wine like a house cat. Before I knew it was time to go. I had spent so much time in front of the cheetahs that I barely had enough time to slip into the wine shop and buy a bottle of Cabernet. The Tripod bought three bottles at each vineyard, while the grandiose plans to implement our own taste later.

The next stop was a small vineyard called Allee Bleue, which was small and very Mediterranean. The buildings were stark white with blue accents, and it had a lovely view of Table Mountain. We had a decent flavor with red wine a very nice host named Francine, I think. Our group seems to gravitate towards red wines, which is definitely ok with me. We have all bought bottles (I bought a Pinotage, a South African hybrid of pinot noir and hermitage) and we headed to the next vineyard.

Our third vineyard was called Die Bergkelter and it serves primarily as a distributor for other local wineries. It has a huge aging and storage facilities are built into a mountain in order to maintain the perfect temperature to grow wine – about 56 degrees. The grounds were beautiful, and their wine cheese basement had huge barrels that hold about 400 bottles of wine as they get older, all of which were made of wood harvested worldwide. We were the first group allowed in the basement after a very recent renovation. Our guide pointed out a bottle of Cabernet, and explained that it was quite pricy at around 300 Rand. We were all shocked, because to spend $ 35 on a nice bottle of wine in America would be totally steal.

Our last (and collective favorite) stop was Fairview, which reportedly has the best views in South Africa. When we arrived, wine cheese I made a beeline to the goat enclosure. There were three goats, climbing a large spiral staircase and generally milling about. Two of them were hamming it up, and pressed her nose against tourists snapped photos. They smelled like goat cheese, which made me a little bit uncomfortable when I then mash of chèvre.

We were all starving so we went to the restaurant for a late lunch. Mel and Risdon very nice bought each table a bottle of wine and some of us ordered spectacles of our individual favorites. Laura and I wanted to eat everything on wine cheese the menu, but we settled on sharing a cheese plate (thank you, goats), a curried chicken potpie and a Mozzarella Panini. The potpie was to die for. I only recently learned to love curry, so I enjoy the fact that South Africans seem to put it in everything. Seriously, it was so delicious that I will try to repeat the recipe when I get home. Lunch was just fantastic.

We meanders around the winery grounds, and found the vineyard, a vegetable garden, and a scarecrow dressed in FIFA gear. So we went to the tasting facility, where we wine cheese had a list of about 25 wines and instructed to stop at various stations to request samples of our favorite grape varieties. I loved that we were invited to sample what we loved, because I could just stick to red. We were also invited to stop at the cheese station to learn about pairings, but I was still so full from lunch, it would have been a struggle to eat anything more.

In our last tasting, we headed back to Scotia House, a little refreshed after half of us fell asleep in the car. We also to a wine cheese location on Long Street called The Neighborhood Bar to watch USA v England game. It was nice to run into so many American citizens and ex-patriots. I made the colossal mistake wearing Brice’s Arsenal jersey, so I kept getting hugs and high fives from English fans, and snowing and spit from U.S. fans. Lesson learned: Just because it is red, it does not denote allegiance to America. As long as I’m here saying my team is Bafana Bafana!