Ballse

Haut Espoir Vineyard

I have been here for a week and a half now and I still don’t feel like I am actually in Africa. I think I am waiting on all the wild animals and the green rolling hills on the safari to finally realize that I am in Africa. All of the large highways and city life are not what I was expecting Africa to be like.

I tried to become a wine connoisseur today but it was an epic fail. Red wine just isn’t my thing! We traveled out to the South African wine country today to visit a town called Franschoek. The town that we were in was so pretty. I feel like I keep saying everything is so pretty but it really is. All of my pictures look fake but they aren’t and the beauty in this country is mind blowing. Haut Espoir was the vineyard we walked around in today. It was a 45 acres vineyard that a woman bought and built from scratch 11 years ago. Her son now farms the vineyard and was our tour guide for the day. Once we toured the vineyard our wine tasting began. This vineyard was all about their red wine and since I have always wanted to get into drinking red wine I had to try them all. I took about a half of sip of each wine and only liked maybe 1 or 2 of them.

The wine we made

We then got split up into groups to make our own wine. We were given 6 basic types of wine to mix together to form a new wine and then name it. My group picked our favorites of the 6 and then decided how much of each type to blend together. When Rob, one of the owners, came over to try our wine and we asked him how it tasted and his response was, “ballsy.” None of us had any idea what that meant but it was the inspiration of the name of our wine….Ballsé! Once everyone was done making their wines the competition began! After the owners examined the wine for its appearance, aromas, taste and feel, a winner was chosen. Ballsé, the wine my group made got first place!! I tried the wine and I actually liked it. For our price we got a free bottle of their signature red wine, The Gentle Giant (which is just for you dad). After the wine tour we ended our day with lunch in the cute little town and then made our way back into the city. 

My group