Wine Tasting – KWV

I started coding in October 2018. It was after reading a book by MJ DeMarco. I didn’t know one can learn how to build a website that easily. By easy, I mean having access to the tools and materials needed to build one. Fast forward to 2019, I wanted to build a website for my elder sister. She runs the online page of her husband’s wine store. Midway, I decided to learn about wines. I downloaded two to three PDF files. I read only one. I got an idea of wines but that doesn’t make me a wine expert. I am not even a beginner. I just read it for reading’s sake. I downloaded the files in 2019 but I read that ‘one’ in 2020. I have forgotten almost everything I read in the book.

This one thing I didn’t forget is how to taste wine. According to the article/file/book, you taste a wine with your nose (but don’t make it too obvious) before you drink it. You don’t gulp it once; you take a sip. So, the aroma (scent, whatever) prepares you mentally (or makes you know what to expect from the wine). I am not a wine expert so the words I use may not be the right words that “fit” what I want to explain and I hope you understand what I’m trying to say. I don’t know the wine vocabulary register.

It was on a late Friday morning, around 11 am/12noon, I was tweeting and chatting with friends on Twitter when my boss came downstairs and asked what I was doing. I was caught off guard so I said ‘nothing.’ He said I should join them upstairs. So, that morning, those in the wine section – I don’t see them daily because the offices aren’t in the same place and the departments; I’m in the cosmetics department) are different. I went upstairs to the conference room. Others were seated already. I found out it was training with one of our wine producers – South African Brand, KWV. A small table had jotters, pens, wines, and wine glasses on it. I picked a jotter and a pen. I sat down and took down some notes about the wines. To be very honest, I was writing but I didn’t know what I was writing. I need to learn more about wines.

I don’t know how long it lasted; I wasn’t with my phone so I wasn’t checking the time (they’ve gone far by the time I joined). We went on a break, I went on an errand when I came back they were rounding up and it was time for wine tasting. So, these are the notes I made per wine we took. This is a newbie’s review of wines. We tasted 6 different wines. They are in order of preference.

ANNABELLE CUVEE BLANCHE

This was the first wine we tasted. It’s my number one out of all the wines. It may be because we took it first, maybe not. It has a familiar taste. It reminded me of Don Simon, my memory may be wrong. The familiar taste of this wine has made me like it. I took a sip and had this “I think I’ve met you before” feeling.

The wine goes well with salad, chicken, cheese or any sweet dessert. The food it goes with was recommended by the trainee. The wine is orange in color.

PEARLY BAY SWEET WHITE

It has a similar taste as Cuvee Blanche but not as strong as it. The similarity makes it my number 2. Everyone said that it has a sour taste. Dear ladies and gentlemen, I tasted nothing. You cannot blame me at all. On a normal, I can’t identify tastes when I take something. I know if something is sweet, peppery, salty, things that are more in something. It is a waste of time to ask me to identify a taste; lo Siento mi amigos. The wine has this sour-sop flavor in it. I ate sour-sops as a kid; I looove it. Maybe that is the sour taste they were talking about. According to our trainee, this wine goes with anything Asian. I don’t know what Asian food tastes like but she said the wine goes best with it. Sushi is an exception because of something seaweed something. I could not hear what she said. Lo siento mucho mi amigos. So, do not take this wine with sushi.

ANNABELLE CUVEE ROSE

This has the same taste as the first one. Lmao!! They have different tastes just that I can’t differentiate them. So, to me, they have the same taste but the first one is cooler. I don’t know how to explain this but a sip of that first one gave me an ‘ah! This is wine’ emotion. Others said it has a strawberry taste in it. If they say it has a strawberry taste, so be it. Maybe it does have the taste, I don’t know what strawberry tastes like. It goes well with fruit salad, berries, dessert, or anything fruity.

ROODEBERG BLACK

this also has the same familiar taste like the first one. Here’s a little back story of the ‘familiar taste:’ my mother went to an event many many years ago. I think it was 2008. She came back with a drink – don Simon. We thought it was the normal don Simon – she thought so too – and we brought our cups ready to gulp the juice. One sip, everywhere burst. It wasn’t the juice she came home with. It was don Simon the alcohol. Waawu. We left it for my eldest brother. Since that day, the taste got stuck in my tastebud. Unlike the other ones that we tasted, this wasn’t. not dry at all. This dryness will be explained later. It’s not dry. It doesn’t have this after-taste ‘anyhow taste’ (term will be explained later). It’s a good wine but it’s four for me. The familiar taste had a strong hold on me. It’s best taken with BBQ. Anything barbecue goes well with it. As usual, they said it’s sweet. Me, and I, didn’t taste anything near sweet. The trainee said it’s “overly sweet.” I don’t know where that’s coming from, to be honest. I know it’s different from others.

KWV MERLOT

This was the fifth wine we tasted, and its number 5 for me. Its better than the one we took before. It has a familiar taste but it is not as strong as the first one. It has a vanishing taste. You take it and it feels as if you took nothing at all. Maybe because I gulped it. I took my glass and poured everything in my mouth. It’s a dry wine. I think when a wine is said to be dry, it means the wine drains everything and leaves you with this emptiness like you’ve not drank water in a long time. It goes well with pasta, pizza and salad. Others said it has a cherry taste. I don’t think I’ve tasted cherry before. I don’t know what its called in my language, but I know the taste is familiar.

This took me ages to write so I can’t remember what the last one tasted like. Lo Siento.