Sunday, March 19, 2017

Tasting wine and a walk in the garden at De Morgenzon, Stellenbosch

On the way to lunch at Jordan, our friends asked to revisit De Morgenzon. They loved the tasting they had there last year and are in awe at the gardens and the featured vineyard, where Baroque music soothes the vines
The wine farm's office is inside the old traditional Cape Dutch building
We spotted winemaker Carl van der Merwe standing in the doorway and he came over to chat. We hear that the harvest has been excellent. Now he has the really hard work, making their excellent wines
Vines on the far hill, now picked, are putting on their autumn colours
The tasting room is in the building next door
We had had very welcome rain that morning so chose to sit indoors for the tasting, as the outside benches were a little damp
Some of the wines we tasted. We are never disappointed by the quality and our friends bought some Sauvignon Blanc and Chenin Blanc. Lynne was enchanted by the 2014 Grenache Noir and invested in a box of six, which will take up residence in our cellar for a couple of years. Full of wild dark licorice and rhubarb flavours, some spice, with good wood and tannin for structure
Lynne was delighted to see lotus growing in the dam. She would like it to grow in our koi pond (once our swimming pool)
And water lilies - yellow ...
... and pink
A perfect lotus flower with its distinctive leaves and unusual seed pods
An open blossom. It is a sacred flower in the East. In the classical written and oral literature of many Asian cultures the lotus is present in figurative form, representing elegance, beauty, perfection, purity and grace, being often used in poems and songs as an allegory for ideal feminine attributes. And many parts of the plant can be eaten
© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2017

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