Besides the wild animals, another highlight of my Trip to Cape Town was the funicular at Table Mountain.
That tiny funicular takes you 3,563ft above sea level. The windows are open and the platform rotates giving you a 360 degree view of the surroundings. If you're not a fan of heights (like me) this is a terrifying trip and you have to hand over the camera to someone else to take pictures while you (I) hold the rails with a death grip until it's over.
But when you finally get to the top, you are rewarded with this beautiful view. Fortunately is was a clear day, I've heard it can be pretty cloudy up there. You can also hike up, but it's about 2 and a half hours to the top, 1 and a half if you're fit.
And after the equally terrifying trip back down the mountain, it was time for a drink.
And because I loved it so much, what better place than Waterford.
This time my friend Mark was with me so I got pass the tasting room and took a look around the cellar.
Typical cellar with stainless steel tanks and dimpled cooling/heating jackets.
A section of the cellar had several tanks lifted into the air, allowing the winery to do some gravity flow movements.
The barrel room was stacked two high, with painted middles.
This is a fermentation bung, it allows the fermenting juice in the barrel to release carbon dioxide and protects from air or bugs from getting in.
After another wonderful time at Waterford, I was eager to taste Pinotage, South Africa's specialty. We found some at Kanonkop Estates.
The prices were very reasonable but nothing here blew me away.
Touring Stellenbosch I noticed a lot of trellising,
But also a surprising amount of baby bush vines. You can still see these head trained vines in Napa, but the vines are very old. No one head trains a new planting. However since labor is so cheap in SA, it's not out of the question. Additionally, I heard that some winemakers prefer the quality of Pinotage when it is head trained.
Next stop was L'Avenir.
I finally found a Pinotage and Chenin Blanc (another typical South African wine) that I enjoyed and needed to come home with me.
The next stop was Le Riche. This was a tiny family operated facility with really incredible wine. The assistant winemaker spent a few harvests learning to make wine in Napa (small world).
The case production was so small that most bottles were labeled by hand.
I have never seen such a rustic system for labeling, it's pretty clever.
The cellar at Le Riche had large square concrete tanks. This is less of a stylist preference and more a consequence of being located in an older facility. However, they made it work.
We had an impromptu tasting in the cellar/bottling room/barrel storage. Mark is helping pour the wines.
I brought home a few bottles of the 2009 Le Riche Cabernet.
And so ended a wonderful tour of a small slice of what South Africa's wine country has to offer. Special thanks to Mark and his lovely girlfriend for showing us around.
This is Gordon's Bay, the town we stayed in. Highly recommended.
P.S. This was the backyard of the house we stayed in. I'm still not sure how I made it home. I was ready to move to South Africa, become a professional ostrich racer and spend me free time soaking up the sun on this deck.
Sigh.
But I did come home and it's been pretty busy at the winery coming up with the 2011 blends.
My teeth hurt from tasting and blending. More on that next week.
-Lucia
No comments:
Post a Comment