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Published: June 24th 2007
Stellensbosch winelands
Although it was cloudy and gray, you can see how pastoral the land is. Saturday, Professor Uphoff (the coordinator of our trip), had organized a group wine tasting tour of the Stellenbosch region just outside of Cape Town. A lot of South African wine is produced here, and my professor is really in love with the wine here, so we knew it was going to be a good time. I have to admit, I was a bit apprehensive about taking off for a wine tasting tour at 9am, but seeing as how we had an hour long bus ride, and a talk about the different winemaking processes, I only started consuming wine at 11:15 am, which is only moderately alcoholic.
The first winery we went to was called Lounsford, and was the biggest winery we visited. Very commercial, but the grounds were well maintained and quite beautiful, with peacocks strolling across the lawn. The Stellenbosch Mountains were in the background, and the sun was shining (for the only time the entire day). Unfortunately, I was not that impressed with the wine there. They had a nice Syrah, but the whites were disappointing. At this point, everybody was still being pretty well-behaved.
We had almost another hour in the bus on the way
The group wine tasting experience
Our group at the first winery. We were still behaving well. to the second winery, which was small and family owned. I do not get carsick or seasick very easily, but I really thought I was going to throw up on this bus ride. It was very bumpy (the roads quite possibly have more potholes than Gainesville or New Orleans), and the roads were very windy. Also, Professor Uphoff had promised us 88 degree weather…he lied. It was definitely cold, and I was wearing a tshirt. So, my general strategy to combat the weather was to just drink enough wine so I didn’t notice the cold (wine jacket, anybody?).
It was pretty easy to do so at this winery, as they were doing free pours instead of measured pours. They let us try basically anything on the menu apart from their set tasting menu, and I ended up buying a bottle of Chardonnay and a bottle of Merlot from them for next to nothing. Other people hated the Merlot, but I was generous enough to offer to help them get rid of it, rather than tossing it in the dump bucket. Sante, Dan, and Kenny seemed to have the same tactic, and pretty soon we were sitting outside giggling.
Syrah, anyone?
Yay for artsy pictures of wine glasses. Finally our Professor ushered us along to the third (and final) winery. At this point, total debauchery had begun on the bus. I kind of thought that maybe a group of law students would be adult enough to handle a day full of the sole purpose of drinking alcohol, but that was really overly optimistic. Let’s just say that if there were any open container laws in South Africa, we broke them (with the encouragement of our professor), and by the time we got to the third winery, not many of us were in any shape to actually be able to distinguish among wines.
After the third winery, where I also spent probably too long of a time “tasting” the wares, I slept the entire way back to our houses. I had grand plans of going out with students from the Missouri program last night, as it was their last night in Cape Town, but alas, bed was better.
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laura
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btw, i forgot to tell you that i loved your "indie album cover" from the previous entry! =) hehe. lol. but anyway, i've spent the last few minutes trying to think of a jacket or warm thing that starts with w so that you could have a "wine warmer" but that sounds gross, so i gave up. i havent actually been to a wine tasting ever before and after reading what you have to say, i think i want to partake (although i've heard that you normally swish and spit, but i say that's for pansies) ;) miss you! xoxoxo