Bacchanalian Adventures

I’m certainly not a wine expert, but after touring vineyards in South Africa, I have found my favorite wine. The third day was spent hopping around in Stellenbach. After our cab driver got lost, our first stop was Warwick Vineyard. It was so cute! We arrived around lunchtime so we got four picnic baskets and 3 bottles of wine for six of us and sat out under an umbrella on the green. As we reclined on pillows, we snacked on baguettes with humus, assorted meats, cheese, brownies, meatballs- perfect for a sunny day. We even got to play botchy ball. The wine was my favorite part though. Warwick wine was delicious, my favorite being the pinotage and the three ladies. Mmm, delicious!

The next vineyard was a little stranger. First off, the guy who was serving us looked like he was 12. I think he heard us talking about it too, because when he came back for the 3rd tasting he seemed highly disgruntled. Oops! Secondly, the wine itself was very strange. We tried 6 wines, 2 ports, and 1 brandy. My favorite was the first chardonnay, but the others were weird, most notably the honey walnut wine. Its after taste was a little too nutty for my taste. Obviously I know next to nothing about describing wines, but after the vineyard tours I think I want to learn more about it. I enjoyed learning how wine is made, stored, shipped etc. I was hoping we would get to mash up grapes with our feet, but sadly most vineyards don’t do that anymore. It’s probably for the best though… I wouldn’t want to reenact the grape lady from youtube. (I miss watching that all the time with you Ashley! Haha)

On our way home we had quite an adventure with our van driver. Originally we had arranged with the company to have the driver for the day, until 6:00. But it seems we had a misunderstanding when the driver jerked and pulled off to the side of the road. He started yelling at us because he thought we were only going to one winery, not two, and then he would take us back. He demanded more money, but we said we weren’t going to pay more since it had already been arranged that we have him for the day. Oh boy, he didn’t like this! He threw the van back into gear and barreled off on the highway. I was gripping my seat, already a little tipsy from the wine extravaganza, and hoped we would get back to the wharf safely. One of the guys in our group held out some money and said we’ll give you half. He pulled over and started yelling at us again because he thought we were only going to pay him half total (but really we just were going to give him half now and the other part later because we didn’t want to get stranded on our way back.) Again- this driver must have had road rage- he tore off down the road. He didn’t speak or stop until we got back to the wharf, thank goodness. And he was visibly heated when we gave him the rest of the money… Glad we got back… It might be time for another glass of wine to calm the nerves.

The wine drinking didn’t just stop at the vineyards. We dined at a great restaurant, City Grill, where we ordered a few more bottles of wine and continued our adventure by exploring the African meats. Our table ordered a skewer that included all sorts of game meat- ostrich, kudu, warthog, crocodile, sausage (who knows what kind)- it was all absolutely delicious! I don’t even think I could pick my favorites, but the kudu was pretty good. Of course when I went back and looked up exactly what a kudu looked like I felt a little bad, because they’re actually sort of cute, in a billy goat gruff kind of way… but mmmm, they were tasty! After we topped off the last of the wine, I was ready to go back to the ship and relax. I had to get up early for the next day anyways. Ahh, another successful day in Africa.