Live from the Cape Winelands
Wine Diva, reporting live from the Cape Winelands, land of the refugee Gauteng Hadedas, bouncing squirrels, schongalolos and chameleons. It’s true! What is a wine diva without a wine country to call her own? Just a diva? And since I am no Mariah Carey I figured I had better hunt me down some vineyards. So for the love of wine, I packed my diva bags, my high-heeled shoes and my entourage (my dog, Missy) into my MINI Cooper early in April 2008 and left Gauteng (maybe not for good). And I have since taken up residence in the Cape winelands, smack-dab in the middle of the R44 on the outskirts of the student village (middle name Tassies) Stellenbosch. I am on a mission to discover the wine countries of the world (the long-term-sugar-daddy plan) and decided to start with the wine country right in my backyard (the-short-term… Waiting-for-sugar-daddy! Where-is-he-already? budget plan). I dream about slowly and savouringly (notice I didn’t say soberly) do what it takes to complete the world winery loop, but it’s evidently not gonna happen in the next 80 days because the sugar-daddies here in the Cape are much too sugar-coated even for my sweet tooth.
My TV is on the blink and I have no room in the budget to fix it or buy a new one. I can hear but I cannot see, so it’s basically a radio. Having no TV means that I just spent my long weekend knitting and having French-conversations with myself. Actually I am becoming quite a brilliant cook as a result and my slow reading speed is improving. I am wading through the endless novels and guides that I purchased just to swipe my Exclusive books fanatics card back in the day when life was too exhausting to get through more than one page at bedtime before passing out and then rereading the same page the next night before passing out again. A vicious groundhog reading cycle, I know you know what I am talking about. I am finding that books and wine pair very nicely together. It’s so quiet without a TV that I can hear when a lost schongalolo has sneaked in under the front door. Ah the simple life! When last did you see a schongalolo in Gauteng? In fact, the last time I saw one I couldn’t spell schongalolo. Maybe I still can’t… is that how it’s spelt?
My original plan was to work full time for one wine estate and learn the tricks of vine before going on to conquer and wow the world of Wine, but I have since realised that with all these wine estates on my doorstep and no Grey’s Anatomy to distract me from my goal, I would be a fool to put all my wine writing in one barrel. I will therefore continue as an independent.
Last week Thursday, 12 June 2008, I was invited to visit the Old Mutual Trophy wine show in Cape Town and it was excellent. I took a friend along from Wine Web and we wine divas had a fine time meeting the who’s who on the wine circuit and tasting what the winners had to offer. The show is a celebratory sampling of the silver and gold winners of the Old Mutual Trophy competition, now in it’s 7th year, and is a great chance to savour top quality wines that often times are only available in very small quantities to the highest bidder. I asked one of the exhibitors what his coveted gold sticker wine would cost me if he had stock (which he didn’t) and he said R425. When I said “a case”, he just rolled his eyes.
Hey I just got an sms from my neighbours inviting me to dinner on Friday night. Yay yay, I may well break through this clicky circle of Cape friendship thing after all.