Third Day in South Africa

On to the Third Day in South Africa:

            Today Kevin, Amanda and I headed out to Stellenbosch early. We caught the 8 AM train in 1^st class since it was extremely cheap, 28 Rand round trip (4 USD). The trains in South Africa are nothing like those in the other countries I have been to so far. 1^st class in the train would be 2^nd class in other trains. The 2^nd class are benches like those you would find on subway cars. There was standing room in case the car filled up.

             The train ride to Stellenbosch from Cape Town was a short one. We arrived around 930 AM. We set out from the station to find the hostel we were going to stay at since they were doing guided tours through the wine lands for 300 Rand (43 USD). This included a private bus, a driver, four wineries, lunch and 21 different wines. Pretty good price considering what we did that day.

           We started the day off at one of the first wineries to be built in the region. There are three main wineries in Stellenbosch, and all of South Africa and the one we went to first is one of them, but there are over 150 wineries in the Stellenbosch region. The three main were the ones who started the wineries in the region. This one has been grandfathered in and is currently owned by three brothers, one does the farming, one does the wine making and the other does marketing. We toured the facilities and learned a great deal about mine production and wine itself. (This trip was better than the Sherry Production I did with SAS back in Spain. I learned more here than there) We started the tour off at the farm where all the grapes were growing. We arrived at the beginning of the season so the vines we just starting to grow. Here we learned the history and such of the winery and the grapes that are used were imported from France. After the farm we headed into the distillery. We saw where the grapes were loaded to be pressed. They do not stomp the grapes anymore. Instead they have a machine that has a balloon inside. What happens is they put the grapes inside and inflate the balloon, crushing the grapes to get the juice inside. I learned also that if they are white grapes, they are immediately separated into huge tanks that are cooled and the skins are separated as well. White wines are to be chilled while red wines are normally room temperature. Now, if they are red grapes, they are separated into separate tanks but are kept in there with their skins to create the color of a red wine. Since the juice no matter what when you squeeze it, it will be an almost clear liquid, the outside of a grape is the only part that has any color. For example, if it is a Rosé, since the color is pinkish, it is not kept in its red skins as long as a normal red wine would.

We then headed to a warehouse where they keep the wines in wood barrels. I learned here that when you taste other fruit in a wine, such as if you taste a hint of apple or something else, they DO NOT put apples or that fruit in it. It is actually the grape itself that creates the fruity flavor. By letting the grape ferment it allows that distinct flavor to come forth. I also learned what the difference between a wooded wine and an non-wooded wine. A wooded wine does mean that it as a cork, as what I thought. A wooded wine is a wine that was kept in a wood barrel, and a non-wooded wine is kept in tanks. Red wines are normally wooded and white wines are normally non-wooded. This winery keep their wine in oak barrels. By sitting in the barrel the wine picks up the oaky flavor. I also learned that the reason red wine has the bitter after taste is from it sitting in its skins for a longer period of time than white wine. I do not remember the chemical that is in the skin that gets transferred to red wine but that element is what creates that taste.

             After touring the facilities and learning much about wine, we started our wine tasting for the day. This tour was in fact the only informational part of the entire day, for the rest of the day was just tasting the different wines of the region. Our driver began our tasting for the day by teaching us how to taste wine. “Swirl the glass around to let the wine breath.” “Tilt the glass so the wine is near the edge. Do not be afraid to stick your nose into the glass, and take a deep breath to get a great sense of how the wine smells.” “Next when you take a sip, put it in front of your mouth and breath in so you somewhat gargle it.” “Now, swish the wine around in your mouth so it hits every taste bud in your mouth. You can either swallow the wine or spit it out, but it’s more fun to swallow.” He then recommended to start out with the lighter wines and then head into our darker wines.

              After we tasted all the wines here we headed to my favorite winery of the four we went to. I was going to order some from the first one but I figured there were be others, and this one was the one. I ordered six bottles of red wine to be shipped home. I normally do not like red wine and when I found the red wine here and I liked it, I ordered it. I also figured my mom might like these wines as well since she does not like red wine as well and I thought these were great red wines so I went ahead and ordered them (it is 3 different wines and I ordered 2 bottles of each). It was here that my mouth was in ecstasy as well. One of the dessert wines it said to try with bleu cheese. It so happened that at this winery we also got to sample cheese, and guess what, bleu cheese was one of them. So Kevin, Amanda and I went over to the cheese bar with the dessert wine. We ate the bleu cheese then followed it with the wine. Oh. My. God. My mouth had never experienced anything like that before. Well, until I tried another one of the cheeses. After finishing up our wine here, we went over to the cheese bar again to try to wide assortment of cheeses. One of the cheeses, Havarti, which is a basic cheese, was my favorite. Why? Well they had put a plate of Balsamic glaze next to it for us to dip it. Speechless. The three of us cleared out the entire plate it was so good. Amanda and I even bought two things of the cheese and the Balsamic glaze as well. Mom if you are reading this, I will attempt my hardest to bring all of this back to San Diego (as of right now I am doing well).

             By the end of the end, after tasting 21 different wines, we were feeling pretty well. We made friends with these to Dutch guys and a German. The two Dutch guys bought 2 bottles of wine at the last place we went to and shared them with us. The German bought an entire case and we killed another bottle from his. We were having a lot of fun. We still had to make it back to Cape Town. So we walked, tipsy, to the train station from the hostel since in Stellenbosch, there are no taxis. We made it on the last train for the day, around 4 PM and got back to the ship safely. I went out to dinner with a few friends as well after and then passed out in my bed around 11 PM. (When we are in port, there is hardly any sleeping at all. We are up pretty much the entire time since we do not get much time in the ports. We take advantage on every moment in the ports.)