"Wine is sunlight, held together by water" Galileo Galiliei - Day 378
Another day wine tasting, but a bit from refined "Wine is sunlight, held together by water" Galileo Galiliei
Our second day of the Adventureshop Stellenbosch tour was somewhat more refined. We paced ourselves, starting a later time of 10:50 and only went to 3 vineyards. Our bus arrived with a few more people, Frankie and Sam from Warwick, Ann and Graham from Kinross, and Sarah and Brianna from the USA. At our first vineyard it was mainly red wines, so I didn’t take part, just chatted a lot to Ann. Tim enjoyed his reds though.
At the next vineyard, it was just Sarah, Brianna and us enjoying the wine out in the sunny courtyard. I am amazed at the variety of flavours that a wine of the same grape type can yield. I drank a Gewurztraminer here which was too sweet for me, however yesterday at the first vineyard, I thoroughly enjoyed a glass of this.
We had such a lovely chat with Sarah and Brianna. Delightful, beautiful ladies whose partners are brothers. How lovely that the two of them are travelling out here for two weeks together. They are lucky that they both have more than the usual 10 days holiday that many people are allocated in America. Crikey, imagine only having 2 weeks’ holiday in a year? No wonder only 36% of Americans have passports, they don’t have much time to travel further than their own front door.
We find it so interesting talking to people from different countries, a significant benefit of our #grownuptravellers. I think because we have transient relationships, knowing that perhaps we may not meet again, we forget the formalities; we just relax, be ourselves and somehow connect quicker and at a deeper level. Of course, it takes two to tango, so this isn’t 100%, but a very high percentage.
Onto our final vineyard, Delheim Wines and definitely my favourite of the 9 we visited. Our wine connoisseur, August, reminded me of the actor Don Warrington. He seemed quite chuffed when I pointed this out. We had a lovely meal here as well as a tasting of five wines. I had four whites and one Rose and thoroughly enjoyed all of them. I really do not like Chardonnay, and when August poured the Methode Cap Classique (MCC) which is similar to Champagne and made using the same traditional method as. When he informed us that it was 100% Chardonnay, our American friends and I all pulled faces of disappointment, yet, when we tasted the bubbly, it was divine. My favourite was their 2018 Sauvignon Blanc; “This light-toned (wine) has a green hue expressing its youthfulness. On the nose aromas of tropical & citrus fruit, along with gooseberry, are supported by a lush palate of green figs and lime.” Light-toned? It is totally clear like water. Delicious though.
Tim was enjoying drinking the reds. He is a Shiraz man usually, however very much liked the Pinotage, a blend of Pinot noir and Cinsaut (Hermitage) with smoky, bramble and earthy flavours. It is so good to try different things, sometimes we can surprise ourselves. It expands our taste buds and even can expand our preconceived made-up comfort zone, benefitting us in many different areas of our life.
We have certainly learnt more about the complexities of making wine. Just changing the oak from French to American oak, for example, can change the flavour to a much more robust, coconut and vanilla profile. What a complex science and art to the making of fine wines.
