The Bahblog

The tour begins

Bruce, our tour guide, was to pick us up at our AirBnB at 8:30am to start the tour, so at 8:10 we ran out for coffee. Low and behold, Bruce is already outside the airBnB, but fortunately also wanted coffee. Bruce lives in the area, and recommended the coffee shop we were already heading to. We grab coffee and hop in the van - we like Bruce already.

We pick up two other American women around our age, two slightly older Australian women, and four Swedish women in their 60s. I'm the only dude.

As we're heading back along the water to head to the first winery, we see whales! Whales are common off of Cape Town, but not this time of year. We stopped to snap a photo.

We hit the highway, and Bruce gives us an overview of the day. We'd be hitting four distinct wineries with a stop for lunch between the second and third. Each winery was different in its own special way.

Bruce pops in a CD of a musician from Mozambique called Mucusa, who plays what I'd describe as eclectic afro-dance-jazz. I really like Bruce.

Fairview Winery

The first winery we visited was Fairview Winery, famous for their "Goats Do Roam", a wine available in the US. Before tasting anything, Bruce brought us back into the hall of steel fermenters and gave us a wine overview.

The overview was honestly kind of a lightning round of unstructured wine and culinary trivia, but it was all fascinating and useful.

My key takeaways -

• Red wine goes bad 3 to 5 days after opening it. Drink it timely.
• You can't age white wine. Drink white wine within a year of opening.
• Not only do you hold wine glasses by the stem to avoid heat transfer from your hand, but to avoid the smells on your hands from affecting your sense of taste.
• Shiraz generally goes good with everything.
• Wine fraud is rampant within the dining industry. Ensure bottles of wine are opened in front of you.
• Never get a bottle of wine that's been stored above a stove. It will cook.
• If wine goes bad, don't use it as cooking wine. Spoiled wine is spoiled, and vinegar is vinegar.

• What you've eaten changes the taste of wine. I knew this already, but there were some cool practicals with this in mind.

  • If your wine tastes too acidic, lick a lemon. It will calibrate your taste.
  • Rosemary and wine tannins carry similar chemicals, so rubbing a steak with rosemary will balance out a tanic wine.
  • Don't order acidic drinks on airplanes, because the pressure on planes makes one way more senstive to acidic flavors.
• The cork industry is struggling hard with how popular screw tops have gotten that they're planning on coming out with the Screw Cork. We're not clear on what that entails.
• Wine with corks should be stored horizontally to keep the cork moist.
• Wine was first fermented in Iran, and a town called Syrah.
• The English were the first to create sparking wine, and not the French.

####Onto the tasting!

We were given two tasting options, and we all elected to do the Pioneer Tasting, per Bruce's suggestion, which included less traditional wines. Each wine was paired with a cheese, and we were instructed to sip the wine, taste the cheese, and then sip the wine again, noting how the flavor of the wine changed with the cheese. We tried - Whites

• Granache Blanc
• Viognier Reds
• Cinault
• Carignan
• Homtini
• Red Blend called Broken Barrel
• A dessert wine

The Viognier, Carignan and Homtini were especially delicious, and the cheese pairing did an exemplary job showcasing how the taste of wine is altered and enhanced with food pairing. It also padded my stomach, as we were drinking wine at 10am.

With that, we explored the winery grounds a bit and then it was on to the next winery!

Backsberg Estate Cellars

We got to the next winery, and Bruce again took us aside for some wine education. This time, we discussed the wine and brandy making process.

Turns out, the turnaround time on white wine production is so much faster than red wine - like weeks compared to months. It was cool to see all the machinery used to separate the skins, seeds and stems from the grapes.

We also went through rooms of oak barrels and discussed their life cycle.

We then walked throigh cellars and saw some really old bottles. From there, it was tasting time.

Tasting time

The two grape variatles that South Africa is known for are Chenin Blanc, a white, and Pinotage, a red. We were to sample white a few of these, as well as a Shiraz and a Brandy.

We began with a sparking wine, moved onto a Chenin Blanc, a Pinotage and a Shiraz. We ended with a Brandy, created through the fortification of wine through evaporation and reintroduction of water. We sipped with brandy with an orange dark chocolate. It was to die for.

Lunch Time

We stopped for lunch at Le Pommier, another wine estate. With as delicious as the wine had been, we were honestly a bit disappointed with the food. Most continued drinking wine, but Claire and I took a wine break with some Coke Zero - we'd already had quite a bit to drink.

The best thing about this spot, though, was the view.

Remhoogte Winery

This third winery was a break from the mold - there was little education, and it was straight to wine tasting! In addition to wine, the winery grounds also housed zebras, windebeasts, springbock and quite a few dogs!

We sat outside under large parasols with a beautiful view.

We sat across from the two Australian women, and discussed our backgrounds. They were on break from working with the UN in South Sudan, each doing a six month tour away from their homes in Australian. South Sudan became a nation at the beginning of this decade, and the UN is around to provide support in this time of politican unrest and sectarian violence.

####Anyway, back to the wine - The styles we tried were the standards in South Africa. We tried two Chenin Blancs, quite destinct from eachother, a Pinotage and a red blend.

Muratie Winery

The last winery we visited with Muratie, a winery and tasting room located in an ancient feeling building. When the founder sold the winery to the current family, he made the family promise not to change ANYTHING. as such, there are 40+ year old cowebs by the windows.

We walked back and watched the team make wine before sitting down in the tasting room.

We sat with the Swedish group of four. They spoke in Swedish most of the time, but also switched into broken English to keep is in the loop.

We tried a few whites, and an array of standard red styles - Pinotage, Shiraz, Merlot, Caberet. We ended up either a port of a dessert wine. Claire and I each gone of, and traded sips. A delicious way to end the tour.

Thus ends the wine tour

We'd like to thank Bruce for the wonderful tour! If anyone is in Cape Town, check out the tour at http://www.africanstorytours.com.