Wine Tasting.

Finally the test is over and I can get back to doing what students do best: Having fun with a drink in hand. Despite a dreary day in the winelands of Stellenbosch, I need to get out and fill my lungs with much needed fresh air. How better to do that than to go wine tasting?

Last time that I went wine tasting there was not so much wine tasting as much as there was wine drinking. The last time I went wine tasting it coincidentally happened to be my first time that I had gone wine tasting. I arrived at a beautiful part of the world to try out their various products that this estate had spent years on perfecting and caring for so that when I threw down the perfect mouthful, I would be sold on the spot and immediately go to the cashier and ask for a case of whatever I had tasted. This trip, however, seemed to be hugely different to what I had imagined. I joined the back of the queue of my friends and followed suit. The order of the day was 3 bottles for R100 which seemed like a fair deal. It was a warm day so needless to say I went for the white option. Half an hour and another R100 later I was on to my 4th bottle with two more waiting in the wings.

It is a strange feeling looking down at the watch, a Rolex rip-off of course, and have to squint with one eye to see that the time is only 12 o clock mid-day. It goes without saying that I enjoyed our version of wine tasting a lot more than the conventional version that I had pictured in my head and by the end of it, driving was not a viable option. Walking was hard enough so to get behind the wheel of car was impossible.

That was the beginning of a bad day in terms of health as after we managed to get back to town after the wine tasting, we all met for dinner as a sort of 2 hour reunion. The 'reunion' was held at a local pub which meant only one thing: More of the same, just with beer instead of wine. There the festivities continued with the same people, the same atmosphere, the same one-eyed glance at the watch to see that it was now 8pm. Sure, 8pm is late for a 12 year old to stay up on a school night and it is late for someone to go out for a casual jog on the mountain path but to be so blind drunk that it feels like you're about to witness the sun come up, 8pm errs slightly on the early side.

Although that day started with a girl vomitting, continued with myself and the misses arguing and ending with me having to travel back to the wine estate the next day to pick up my credit card which I had left behind the bar, it was a thoroughly enjoyable day and a version of wine tasting that perhaps has succeeded the conventional style. I cannot wait to get out into the vineyards of Stellenbosch to relive that experience again, this weekend.

Regards
Student Micky.