I've been in Robertson for the past few days now. Robertson is located about a 2-hour bus ride northeast from Stellenbosch. Yesterday the weather SUCKED. It rained all day. I was actually supposed to meet with Van Loveren Family Winery yesterday but due to the rain I had to cancel. Because of a lack of public transportation around here my only options of getting from Robertson Backpackers to Van Loveren was 1.) bicycling 16km or 2.) walking 15 minutes to the main junction and hitching a ride. I was fine with either option, but considering the weather I probably would have been blown away in the rain storm.
Unfortunately I lost my meeting with my contact with the Human Resources representative. Due to the rain I missed my meeting yesterday and couldn't postpone it because she is only contracted with Van Loveren once a week. I tried to coordinate with another representative, including trying to set up a meeting with the fair trade liaison today (which would have actually made more sense to schedule a meeting with her in the first place) but she had the flu and left the office early. ERR, unforeseen obstacles! A bit bummed at first, but what can you do? I weighed out my options and decided that its OK I didn't get to see Van Loveren. By judging their heavy product placement in supermakets, I gather Van Loveren is a huge winery and extremely well-known. Only one of their lines is Fair Trade certified, their Five Reserve's pinotage, which is the only wine I am interested in. Considering they have many many other popular lines of wine including Four Cousins and Tangled Vines, maybe I'm judging here ... but I'm more interested in speaking with cooperatives and estates that shine because they are known for being fair trade certified and producing fair trade products. Comparatively, I feel Van Loveren is a huge company who just so happens to produce a fair trade certified product among many others. Just my personal opinion.
Anyways, so what did I do today? Well, because you asked... I rode a bicycle today for the first time in who knows how many years. Robertson is a small and quaint town that offers wine tastings for free! Since the weather was absolutely perfect, (okay not perfect, but at least there was no rain) I decided it was a great day for a bike ride!
I spent the day leisurely riding my bicycle around town, waving and saying hello to each person I passed. I always get stares from people who must be thinking - "who is that Asian girl and what the heck is she doing here all by herself?" So I just respond by smiling and saying "Hello, how are you?!" Most of the time they respond, but unfortunately the conversation always ends there because they either speak Afrikaans or Xhosa - neither of which I understand.
I worked up an appetite and ate breakfast at a cute little coffee shop conveniently connected to a wine cellar that offered free wine tastings. The sign above the wine shop door even says 'You're Welcome to Browse While Waiting...well sheesh, you don't have to tell me twice! I bought a bottle of White Muscadel, which is the South African version of Muscat wine, or 'Muscato' which is what I'm most familiar with. Since the main street in Robertson has around 7 wine shops who also have free wine tastings, I spent the rest of my afternoon riding my bike, stopping to sample wines from Robertson, and then jumping back on my bike to do it again. Fun! Oh, and I DID get to sample Van Loveren's Five Reserve's pinotage, so I guess not all was lost?
I took some photos today but I'm having issues with my USB cord and can't upload them into my computer. Bummer. Hopefully I'll be able to borrow or buy a new one.
Anyways, I still need to publish my post and photos from Koopmanskloof... its coming I promise but I want to give it the attention and detail it deserves. In other news, I have two meetings set up for the last 8 or so days I'm here in South Africa. One of them includes being hosted on a citrus farm for two nights. Exciting details to come soon...
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