The Five Stages of Wine Tasting

 The ideal: 1) sight – what does the wine look like? Clear? Color?  2) smell – what does the aroma evoke? Oak? Flowers?  3) swirl – what tracks does it leave, if any, and what does that tell you? About alcohol content? 4) sip – just enough   5) savor – hold it and enjoy (spit or swallow – I always elected to swallow…wine)

 The reality: 1) buzzed – the first two of 30 wines tasted 2) tipsy – Ah didn’t know Ah liked red wine.   3) drunk – Gee, you’re cute. You, too, and you!  4) shit faced – I’m just gonna gonna lay here fer a minit, ok?  5) passed out – self explanatory.

 

Wonder what stage Lynn reached?

 Learned all this on a wine tasting tour of the Stellenbosch, wine country just outside of Cape Town, South Africa. Led by the Wine Lord, Lawrence of Wine Files, who provided hats and a wealth of knowledge, a fellow Bots 11, Lynn Deustch, and I recently visited five wineries and tasted 30 vintages.

                                                                       

                                                                            

 Chocolate, gourmet cheese and a delightful lunch that I can’t for the life of me remember what was included, also accompanied the reds, sparkling, and whites. I bought a fabulous port that I’d planned to open on new years eve, but since I was the only drinker at the time, decided to save it for my birthday. It may make it.

 

The Wine Lord and Me

 

 

The Makings of Merlot

 

  Every winery offered not only wine but something else unique. One had goats, in a castle.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lunch

at a

winery

  with dogs to die for.

 

 

 

 

  Another had a sorta petting zoo….and the weirdest, coolest Christmas tree I’ve ever seen.

After visiting a few of the charming shops in this historic community, the now group of BFFs, with people from all over the world – Poland, Australia, France, Finland, Italy and, of course, the good old USA, we retired to the Waterfront for dinner and, of course, MO WINE!!