It was really great to spend some one-on-one time with Gavin Berry of West Cape Howe. Chris Pigott and I got just that chance to do it when Gavin picked us up at our lovely B & B in the charming town of Denmark called " Reflections ". We had a blast there with a lot of the crew from WEST CAPE HOWE and I don't think that Chris or I will forget it anytime soon.
It was especially nice however to have this type of one-on-one that we had at different stages of our two-week trip. It gave Chris and me both a chance to get to know these key players in each of these vineyard operations.
The morning that Gavin picked us up was our last with him, David ( the winemaker ), Nick Stacey and the others. Gavin took us to a local cafe there in Denmark and we had our coffee and toast and were off to check on the vineyards and the progress in the maturity of the various grapes. When we had arrived Gavin was off doing this exact same thing and so was not at the winery when we arrived. I was curious to see some of the vines as we had not yet inspected any of them, only had seen them from afar.
Gavin is such a kind and gentle man, His eyes sparkle with real warmth and graciousness. I enjoyed his rather quite demeanor and really relaxed in his company. This gentle quality was balanced with his car that was well-worn, quite dusty and spoke of toil and work and constant use. The two : the man and his car made quite the statement. Obviously Gavin was quite used to and comfortable with being beat up/ dashed/ bashed and bumped on these country roads as well as the unpaved ones in the vineyards.
It took us awhile to get where we were going. We went through the Frankland River area and arrived at a rather large expanse of dusty, hot, thirsty(?!?) rows of vines on a slight incline. We stopped the car and Gavin jumped out to inspect the vines. He wanted to be sure that they were receiving enough water as not to be too stressed.
The thing that I enjoyed the very most about this part of the trip was being able to walk through the rows of vines and taste first the Sauvignon Blanc grapes, then the Semillon and the Chardonnay and the Riesling and even the Shiraz grapes. Wow. This was the first time that I had ever within a period of an hour tasted so many different famous grapes still on the vines side by side. I loved how different they all were. I'd like to go back and do this all over again Gavin with you and this time be ready to pay more attention and to learn more. Thanks for this invaluable opportunity. Here are some of the pictures I took from this special time that we three spent together.
Chris, Gavin and I are all in the pictures here. Cheers, TONY
1 comment:
Great pictures. What a neat thing to do.
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