Missing the New York State of Mind in South Africa

By Julia Burke, Niagara Correspondent

I think I’m the only person I know who actually enjoys visiting wineries alone. To me, there’s nothing better than taking off in my car with no agenda, stopping wherever I want, chatting with the employees and making new friends. Sure, tasting with friends is fun. But aside from a few fellow wine geeks with whom I’ll drop everything for a wine tasting jaunt, I genuinely prefer going solo.

Part of it is the fact that I’ve been writing for a long time and I’m used to doing interviews and research solo. Furthermore, I genuinely enjoy going on adventures by myself. But I’ve also had some incredible experiences tasting alone: it’s often easier to get into a conversation with the winemaker, I can spend as much time as I want on each wine, and I’ve often been lucky enough to get goodies like barrel samples and personal tours.

I’ll never forget the time I showed up at Heart & Hands Wine Company on Cayuga Lake on a day when they weren’t even open: Tom Higgins dropped everything to give me a personalized tasting, some barrel samples, and over an hour of fascinating wine talk. Even if the wine hadn’t been delicious (it was) I would’ve left the winery with a good impression.

In fact, I’ve never once been made to feel awkward or out of place because I’m a single taster. I didn’t realize this might be a New York thing until I came to South Africa.

Since my roommates and I usually don’t have the same days off work, I typically find myself going wine tasting alone here in Stellenbosch. With an incredible wealth of fantastic wine farms within a few minutes of my house, I’m not about to skip a chance to go tasting just because I don’t have a buddy. But a visit to Guardian Peak Wines over the weekend confirmed my suspicion that people around here just don’t know what to make of a single woman out by herself for a day of wine tasting.

I walked into the not-so-crowded tasting room, approached the bar and asked for a tasting. “For how many?” smiled the perky server behind the counter. “Just one – I’ll just stand at the bar,” I said cheerfully. Her face fell. “Just you? Ok…you can go have a seat on that couch and someone will be with you shortly.”

It’s common in South African tasting rooms for guests to sit down at a table or outside while the server brings each wine over. This feels pretty awkward if you’re a single taster, so I always opt for the bar, but at the server’s insistence I grabbed a chair.

When after fifteen minutes I still didn’t even have a glass, I went back to the bar. “I’ll just stand here,” I said, “so it’s easier for you.” My server, a rather unfriendly young man who was constantly looking over my shoulder at his other customers, insisted I go and sit down – apparently the bar was not an option. When I finally did get my wines, he seemed to be rushing through each wine description, hurrying away before I could ask any questions. I wasn't excited enough about any of the wines I tasted to forgive them for the unfriendly vibe, and I left without a purchase.

Normally my tasting room experiences aren’t nearly that frustrating, but almost everywhere I’ve been the employees have seemed shocked, confused or even sympathetic about the fact that I’m tasting by myself. Once the novelty of my single status wears off I normally get good service, and I have a great time chatting with the other tasters. But the great conversations about wine that I’ve had with winemakers and owners in New York wineries just don’t happen in the South African tasting rooms I’ve visited – servers generally have a basic familiarity with each wine but neither the interest in nor the ability to discuss the why: why was the wine oaked for as long as it was? Why did this farm choose to plant the grapes it did? Losing this crucial aspect of tasting makes the solo endeavor less enriching.

Why the difference in attitudes? Most of the wine farms in Stellenbosch are larger and more established than many of my favorite New York wineries, so it’s perhaps unrealistic to expect the winemakers to be hanging out ready to answer questions. Service in general is minimalistic – many of the servers are young students who aren’t expected to be intimately familiar with each wine. Plus, for as long as I’ve been here I have never once seen another single taster in a tasting room, so I think it throws servers for a loop. Above is a photo of the one person I’ve seen in a Stellenbosch tasting room alone: the guitarist at Ernie Els.

There’s a cultural issue, too. South Africa has one of the world’s highest crime rates, so you simply don’t often see people, especially women, going out alone. Due to lingering patriarchal attitudes, women don’t do many things alone, period – I’ve been asked why I don’t have a boyfriend more times than I can count. “We’ll have to get you one now-now!” is the standard response, the word duplication indicating an unmistakable level of urgency. I’ve often been told that I shouldn’t be “wandering about” alone, and the idea that I’d actually choose to go off wine tasting by myself is just plain unsettling.

Whatever the reason for the difference in attitude, I’ve found that traveling often teaches you just as much about where you come from as where you’re visiting. Though I’m having a wonderful time drinking the amazing wines of Stellenbosch, I have come to appreciate the down-to-earth New York tasting room atmosphere and New York winery employees’ friendly, open-minded attitude toward single tasters. Just like guests with small children, disabled guests, and guests with dietary restrictions, single tasters need to be accommodated and treated with respect – after all, they might be wine bloggers!

Comments

[winenegress]

Thanks for sharing this. I have often thought of visiting the SA wineries as something of a dream vacation but wonder how a single black woman would be treated here.

[Julia Burke]

I'll be honest - both racial and gender stereotypes are way more out-in-the-open here than they are in the U.S., and attitudes vary tremendously from place to place and from one person to another.

I mentioned in my post that several people have told me I shouldn't be going out to wine farms alone; a number of people including a security guard have actually added, "especially because you're white," the implicit stereotype being that people would wonder why a white person would have to walk. ("It makes the tourists uncomfortable," one employee explained.) Or perhaps they say this out of concern that since I looked like a potential tourist (most are white Europeans) I'd be more likely to be a target. Either way, I hadn't considered the racial element to the situation before I got here, but as with every aspect of South African life, race is front and center.

That said, the SA wineries are in many ways a dream vacation: the wine's excellent and original, the scenery is beautiful, and the food is out of this world. I would never discourage anyone from paying a visit, but I did want to share some observations about New York vs. SA tasting experiences. I think it's important for women of all backgrounds and walks of life to be comfortable traveling the world independently, and the best way to make this happen is to get people used to the idea! Happy trails!

[Evan Dawson]

Fascinating, and of a piece with your excellent analysis of race relations in SA on your blog. You simply write beautifully, Julia, and it's a pleasure to follow along on your journey.

[jim]

When I visited SA it was with a group, but it didn't keep me from noticing everything that Julia is pointing out to us in her descriptions. The cultural differences are shocking, and shockingly subtle too. Why wouldn't a "white woman" travel to wine farms alone? Why not? The answer isn't in their words, or on their faces. The answer is in their blood it seems to me - what is normal to us is not normal there. The feeling is so strange (and yet so beautiful) there (for a NYer) that the air feels differnt, the colors you see are more intense, and the smells and tastes so unique and memorable. It is indeed a different world. When you taste a South African wine AFTER experiencing the country, you are reminded of the experience all over again. The strange aromas in the glass evoke those memories for you. Even in the simplist SA wine, I can smell the tension in the air. It's palpable.

[Rowland]

"I would never discourage anyone from paying a visit" ... I would. I would discurage anyone of European descent from visiting any country in the world where the natives are still living under a state of occupation and subservience to a ruling European minority. We went there, we took all their good land, we raped and murdered and victimized entire generations and peoples. For Americians this is our history, the irradication of the indians was almost total, but in South Africa, this it never stopped, it continues to this day, and as soon as you go there, even as a tourist, your are joining the dominators. This may sound hyperbolic, but this is the perspective through which the natives see you, wheather in South Africa, Jamaca, Kenya, Puerto Rico, Mexico, or any other of those wonderfull vacation spots (even native hawiians resent a situation where wealthy Americans and Japanese are the dominant cultural and economic force).

And Id like to preemptivly address anybodys rebuttal about how tourism creats jobs and helps the impoverished natives blah blah blah. If I steal your entire village, where your people lived comfortably for thousands of years fishing and farming, knock it all down and build a beach resort, am I doing you a favor by offering you a job as a bell boy in the hotel? these people dont need "jobs" or "money" they need their land back.

Sorry to get uber political on your wine blog Lenn, and Julia this is not an attack on you ...

[jim]

Rowland isn't entirely incorrect in his rant above, but the depiction of the early history of South Africa is not accurate. The sparse population of San (bushmen) where eradicated almost entirely by the nomadic and warlike Zulu from the north centuries before the Dutch landed. What the Europeans found was almost empty. The black population of Zulu and Xhosa came after the Europeans. You can look it up.

[Julia Burke]

Rowland,

Thanks for your comment - though this isn't the forum for an involved discussion of colonialism, you raise important issues. Certainly the history of European imperialism and racial oppression in South Africa is both hateful and depressing, and few would disagree with your assertion that it continues today in a non-institutionalized manner despite the end of apartheid and the beginning of voting rights for non-whites. We have a similar problem in America, though South Africa's racial turmoil is even more recent.

But - and this is certainly a personal choice based on my opinion - I don't think this is a reason to not to visit South Africa any country where social inequality is rampant (and so many countries fall into this category!). Yes, when we travel to such countries many of our dollars go toward this continued white domination, but it's also possible now to support socially conscious businesses. I'm doing research for a post on black-owned wine farms, for example - stay tuned. Little by little, South African society is moving toward social equality and a more equalized economy, but it won't happen without publicity and financial support.

I see where you're coming from, but I do view travel as an invaluable education; for me, it's important to see how people live their lives in as many parts of the world as possible.As you suggest, we have a responsibility to make sure that our tourist dollars are going to responsible businesses - I encourage all travelers to seek out environmentally and socially conscious businesses, support local charities, and volunteer their time or skills (LonelyPlanet.com has good resources for this), and spend as much time with the locals (as opposed to other tourists) as possible.

Unfortunately there is a lot of injustice in the world, but in avoiding the areas where it takes place we risk closing our eyes to it. Let's not forget that international opinion against South Africa's apartheid system lead to economic sanctions which helped weaken the National Party's stronghold - the international community can't offer support to an independence movement if no one is traveling and bearing witness to it!

For what it's worth, many of my non-white coworkers and friends have expressed their appreciation that I wanted to come to South Africa. Most people in the world are eager to share their culture with outsiders, and South Africans are especially friendly and open: they've invited me to their homes, to their shebeens (informal bars), to their football games, and my experiences here have been so rich and rewarding that I simply can't bring myself to discourage others from doing the same.

[Duncan Ross, Arrowhead Spring Vineyards]

Rowland,

Unless you are way older than a person normally gets to be, I really don't see how you can feel responsible for things that happened hundreds of years ago. I see the world as it is and I am cognizant of how it got to the state it is, but I don't feel personally responsible for getting it there. I would never say "we did this or that", because being born in the USA in 1961, I wasn't a part of it. I can only look at the way the world is and try to make it better by affecting things I can affect. Traveling the world helps us all build understanding. If no one ever went to places like South Africa, how would any of us know anything of what life is like there? I am enjoying reading of Julia's adventures, though I do hope she is being careful as well.

[Julia Burke]

Evan and Duncan, thank you for the compliments! And don't worry, Duncan, I'm determined to get back to Niagara in one piece because I miss your Estate Syrah. :)