Recently I have been uninspired to write. Not exactly sure why. I guess it is because nothing huge has happened during the last couple of weeks besides the departure of friends, a couple of car accidents, some wine tasting, a run in with some local reality TV stars, a near break-in at the loft, some calling of the police, a trip to the hospital, and playing with random dogs on the beach. Nothing out of the ordinary really. Not for Cape Town at least.
But wine tasting. Oooh. So good. I have never been officially taught the art of wine tasting, but after touring several wine estates I think I have the general, improper way of tasting to a T. Every friday the internship coordinators organize an outing for all of the interns to take part in. Past outings have included hikes, boat rides, and day trips around the city. A couple weeks ago we decided it would be fun to go wine tasting and to have a braii (barbecue) on the estate. The first wine estate we stopped at was Tokara and it had a large list of wines that we could taste. I tasted both the whites and the reds and actually found a white that I found rather enjoyable. After spending a considerate amount of time there we headed to La Couronne where our braii was to be held. At this point we had already sampled a dozen or so wines, so my evaluation of the ones at La Couronne were less than desired. Every wine tasted excellent. I bought one of their inexpensive bottles (R30 = $4) to take home, which I consumed earlier this week and was surprised at how much I enjoyed such a cheap bottle. After our tasting we ate a meat centered braii, where our meal consisted of boerworse, lamb, ostrich, mash, and some salad. It was delicious and tasted so good after all the red wines we had consumed earlier.
My second authentic wine tasting experience took place a couple of days ago. Lindsey has hired (rented) a car, so we decided to drive out to Stellenbosch and hit up a few wine estates. We grabbed the wine route tour guide and headed out on a road that was described as having magnificent scenery. We planned on stopping at four or five estates, but after four and a half hours we counted the number of stops to be seven. The whole day I only tasted reds because finding a white that appeals to my taste buds is something short of a miracle. The Cabernets, Pinotages, and blends we had varied considerably in taste and we found that at each estate they only had one type that really fit our tastes.
As a side note, regardless of where I am or who is speaking to me, people assume that I can speak Afrikaans (which is derived from Dutch and considered to be a "white" language). This happens all the time because of people's assumptions (usually other Afrikaaners) based upon the color of my skin. After five wine estates I had experienced my limit of this, and so I attempted to speak back to them in Spanish. Not sure why I decided to do this, but usually after their Afrikaans and my Spanish we settled on English as the language of choice.
No comments:
Post a Comment