Winning Wine Words - with a View

Wine away a day in the Winelands near Cape Town, South Africa. Our highlight was a wine tasting and lunch at Noble Hill in Paarl. NOBLE HILL takes wine descriptions to a new level. In the gorgeous tasting room, you are handed one-pagers for each wine. What fun! The Cabernet Sauvignon 2007 has "hints of burnt marshmallow" and the Merlot 2008 is "A rebel with a cause...cavorting with Cabs". My favorite was the Chardonnay 2010: "Like a beautiful blonde with an astrophysics PhD...a pleasure to behold but isn't afraid to show its substance". Noble Hill marks each wine label with a different graphic of an old metal key. The key idea came from Noble Hill's current owners, when they bought the property and were handed a pile of rusty keys. They designed a cool graphic of interlocking antique keys, which they use as an icon for the business.  The keys are incorporated into a graphic decal on the side window of the tasting room. (See the photo?)

Wine Tasting Room at Noble Hill

Restaurant at Noble Hill - a perfect afternoon of wine tasting, word teasers and well-seasoned table

DELAIRE Restaurant at the GRAFF ESTATE takes the eye candy prize. As you drive the winding road up the hill and pass through the security gate, you enter into gorgeous gardens. But that's just the teaser for what's to come. The restaurant is perched at the top of a hill with views across a vast valley. Cocktails are offered on the wide patio, perched over the valley. It is a gorgeous spot and the food is as good as the scenery.

Garden at Delaire Estate- Just off the Patio where Cocktails are Served

Graff Estate View of Vineyard from Terrace of Delaire Restaurant - Best viewed with a glass of wine in hand

Circumcision Ceremony and the BMW

Cape Town Township Housing

Maxwell, Zulu Guide, with Cape Town City Hall in Background

Life is culturally rich and perplexingly interesting in the black townships of Cape Town. White foreign tourists (i.e. our family) can visit the townships and feel quite safe when escorted by a guide who lives there. Our guide Maxwell greeted us in our hotel lobby wearing a pressed black business suit, crisp white shirt and tie. He is a tall Zulu man with a deep voice. His real name is Shaka, which means warrior. First, he took us to stand in the large plaza in front of Cape Town's city hall, where Nelson Mandela had addressed packed crowds as apartheid fell. Maxwell was 20 years old then, and stood with the mobs in tears and cheers. Today, he has steady work as a free-lance tour guide but he, like most other blacks, lives in the unbelievably crowded and primitive conditions in the townships. No indoor plumbing, no heat, no insulation and leaky roofs. The government provides the land and tiny shacks for free. In the townships, people can legally practice rituals such as sacrificing animals, that they would not otherwise be permitted to do in other districts in Cape Town. The first township we visited was Langa, the oldest township - very close to downtown Cape Town. About ten minutes after driving away from the downtown area, we passed a large electric generation plant, presumably serving much of the industrial area of Cape Town. After the electric plant, the main road continues past a tree-filled grove, for about one-half mile or so before the road to turn left into the township. Maxwell pulled over and stopped the car to point into the tree grove, to a half dozen or so light colored tents almost completely hidden by the trees. The landmark he used to orient our sights to find the tents was a shiny new BMW SUV parked just outside the grove. Smoke curls were streaming up from the encampment. He explained that the tents are occupied right now by boys undergoing their manhood ceremony. Just as the Zulus do out in their rural communities, they practice the same cultural rituals while living in the city. When boys are almost 19 years old, they must go into the woods, deprived of food and drink for a few days, and then undergo the circumcision ceremony without anesthesia. While recovering in their tents, they are brought food. That was why the snazzy BMW was parked nearby - for a food drop to care for the boys in the tents in the woods - between the electric plant and the overcrowded slum of urban shacks.

Rent-a-Knife in Langa Township, Cape Town

Mzoli's - Belly-Filler in Langa Township of Cape Town

Where the Meat Meets the Heat: Mzoli's Kitchen

A few sweaty guys tend open fires in a really hot, tiled room, flipping slabs of spicily marinated beef, pork, chicken and lamb. Mzoli's is a rare commodity--a restaurant--located in Langa, one of the oldest townships in Cape Town. Situated in the midst of tiny crowded shack-homes, Mzoli's sells barbecued meats to be consumed on the premises at picnic tables outside. You choose your raw meats from the butcher's display case and then take them to a counter to arrange for them to be barbecued. While waiting for the meat to cook, Gordon and I saved seats at a picnic table under the tented open air cover. Our Zulu guide Maxwell took Larry and Max back out into the street to get drinks. They went into a lady's shack across the street to buy beers. She offered a six pack for sale, but Max pointed out that it was actually a five-and-a-half pack, because one of the beers had already been drunk halfway. When the meat was finished cooking, it was piled onto a platter and handed over. Our guide Maxwell advised that if you prefer not to use African utensils (i.e. your hands), you need to buy plates (paper), cutlery (thin white plastic) and napkins (paper). Also, since the slabs of meat are large, you really could use a real knife. No problem. Rent a steak knife for ten rand (about $1.20) deposit, to be refunded when you return the knife. It was delicious food and perfectly cooked. We also bought the side of pap, a ground maize that looks like mashed potatoes, but whiter. After we finished eating, our guide Maxwell asked if I wanted to meet the owner of the restaurant. Sure...why not? I followed Maxwell back into the butcher shop storefront area, where the owner was busy taking payments. Maxwell suggested I pose with the owner so we could get  a picture with my camera. No problem. Smiles. Click. I held out the steak knife and asked for the deposit refund. He took back the knife, smiled and suggested ten rand for the photo. Fair deal!

Picture Pose instead of Knife Deposit Return

Red Cappucino

South Africa's most common tea drink is red tea. It is really red and it is naturally decaffeinated. A coffee place called Mugg & Bean serves it like a cappuccino, with foamed milk and honey, topped with cinnamon powder. The drink is called Rooibos, pronounced "Roy Boss". It's delicious.  This was at the Mugg & Bean store in Franschhoek in the Winelands.

My Two Cents About Money and Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe has suffered from crippling inflation. Paper money became virtually worthless, so the government printed new bills in higher and higher denominations, in amounts that were staggeringly, and in fact, unbelievably high -- notes in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, then millions, then billions.
Eventually, the country has righted its problem. As a practical matter, the people of Zimbabwe use U.S. Dollars or South African Rand. First choice is dollars. Strangely, the smallest U.S. dollar bill available is the $2 dollar bill - in abundance. One dollar bills are rare.
Now that Zimbabwe has stabilized a bit by conducting transactions in dollars or rand, the people are beginning to rebuild their lives. It was tragic to hear stories of life savings, in fact means of survival being wiped out as inflation soared. Things got to the point where it became unaffordable to buy meager provisions to eat. For some time, the government issued special currency called agricultural notes which looked like regular paper money except they included both an issue date and an expiration date a few months later. For example. a 5 million dollar note would buy a loaf of bread for a brief period. Shopkeepers now offer to sell those old notes as souvenirs (if you ask). I bought a $5 billion dollar agricultural note (and paid with a US $2 Dollar bill).