Email
Print
ShareI don't know which is worse, to forget a birthday entirely or to remember it, only to be subsequently reminded of how old you are?
Take the wine industry for example. If anyone deserves a consolatory drink, the wine industry is perhaps the most deserving; to be so old that you can't even remember how old you really are.
It is older than Jesus but younger than the oldest established trade in the world and if you don't know which that is, you need to get out more, perhaps to Amsterdam.
It is so old that we only have an apparition of an idea of when the first wine could have possibly been made. Sure there are containers from all sorts of eras, just like pictures in the family album which are so old that nobody can remember by who, or when they were taken, where the edges have turned crinkled and curled up and you, surprisingly, are in them.
The South African wine industry then is certainly very fortunate. Not only do they have concluding evidence to their age, they have the birth certificate that was issued to them on conception.
The diary entry of Jan Van Riebeeck on February 2, 1659 read, "Today, praise be to God, wine was pressed for the first time from Cape grapes."
Van Riebeeck was the Dutch East India company envoy, sent to the Cape in 1652 to establish a victualling station for ships coming around the southern tip of Africa. It was he who planted the first vines thus leading to the establishment of the wine industry of South Africa.
Today, at 400 million litres of export production, the country is a definite wine force to reckon with and the ninth largest in the world. No small claim for a country which till 1994 was on the map for entirely different reasons.
It was only post-Apartheid that foreign markets opened up to South African wines and that is when they realised how much of a task they had if they were to carve a niche for themselves on the international wine scene.
A few things they did right and among them, I regard the instating of the Pinotage as their local champion a smart choice. To be honest, they still have a lot of ground to cover with this grape but I see that as scope for higher perfection.
At the moment there are many good variants. Another would be reviving the Chenin Blanc which was unknown outside of the Loire. Further, they have also gained a reputation for making great wines out of the more common international grapes as well.
I wish I could do justice to the entire industry. If anything, I will run out of space before I have even covered a fraction of the wines I love and cherish from South Africa.
It would suffice to say that they are not just world class but also a class apart. Given the connections of cricket, Gandhi and the land masses which actually connect the two countries, I think we do share a special bond that goes much beyond just wine. So a birthday on their shores should be reason enough for us to join in.
Go out and spend time with a South African beauty today. Take her out for wine as well.
The one last thing I will say about birthdays is this; they are fun and bring a lot of revelry. Age is best contemplated a few glasses down. If you have a sip for every good instance from your past, a souvenir in time and end up with a hangover, then be happy for you are having a great life, my friend.
Here's wishing the South African wine industry many more intoxicating years.
