I finished my sightseeing in Cape Town by taking a tour of the wine country. Needless to say, it was a tour full of guilty pleasure -- lots of wine tasting and even... Chocolate (there is no better combination than champaign and chocolate or even a nice deep red wine with chocolate, we discovered... especially when your chocolate has ingredients such as fresh ginger and even red pepper! )
The Dutch settlers were the ones that brought wine making to South Africa and to this date most of the "wine farms" (as they are being called here) are owned and operated by Afrikaners. However, a new generation of black and colored workers is now seen in all the wineries, as was the case with the ones we have visited. They have discovered the availability of training and jobs in this great industry and are slowly making their way into it. Of course, they are not owners yet, but clearly that time will come as well (all in all, our Zulu tour guide told us, the biggest problem in South Africa is land ownership since 87% of the land is owned by just 3 million people leaving black and colored folks with almost no way to acquire land. This is what has also given birth to the black and colored townships that dot the route between Cape Town and the wineries and are a very sore spot for everyone. Our guide claims that the government is going to try and build some temporary housing in front of the townships by 2010 when the World Cup will take place here, in an attempt to disguise the townships shacks from a view from the highways going in and out of town).
After tasting over 20 varieties of South African wines, our group was convinced of the wonderful quality of wine produced here and the care so evidently being taken in every one of the farms we have visited. They all looked like the belonged on a movie set!
Yet our Zulu guide reminded us that not too long ago, the black laborers on the wine farms were paid in wine bottles containing spoiled wine which many blacks believe was in the root of spreading infertility among the workers... Right now, during the summer harvest, you see a lot of blacks commuting to the farms from the townships to work in the vineyards, many of them happy for the temporary employment they provide.
We left the wine country in a mellow mood, having even visited a quaint and old French village in the midst of the sprawling farms. Right next to small bistros with French sounding menus, you were able to purchase African wooden sculptures of jungle animals. And down the road, we even stopped at a cheetah farm that raises baby Cheetahs as preservation of the species. Ah, Africa the magnificent!
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