Part 1

MANILA, Philippines?The mountains were impressive?bare rock with very little vegetation, one so flat on top it was called Tabletop Mountain.

?You haven?t been to South Africa,? our taxi driver told us, ?if you haven?t been to that mountain.?

Through the five days we were guests in South Africa, we were shown another thing the country is proud of?South African wines.

I met some of the purveyors at a wine tasting a year ago. And to see them in their environment was to understand what they had been talking about. You got more than just the sense of the terroir?winespeak for the climate and soil. You felt the cold winds coming in from the sea into the city. You walked on the red clay soil they described.

We were in Cape Town for the Nedbank Cape Wine 2008, a biennial trade event that brought together the wine producers of South Africa and buyers and distributors all over the world, plus some invited journalists like me.

It was an exhilarating five days of meeting with wine makers, eating the food of the place paired with the wines, and learning about the country?s art?music and sculpture and traditional artistry.

Introduction

On our first evening, we were introduced to the wine, food and place not in the convention center but in the congenial atmosphere of the oldest wine-producing farm, Groot Constantia. It dates back to 1685 and the structures represent Cape Dutch architecture. The original wines produced were sweet dessert wines that were popular throughout Europe in the 18th century.

It was an introduction as well to the sounds of the Dizu Kudi Horns, a group of Africans who greeted us with the stamping of their feet and sounds of both animal horns and drums. Music accompanied us on our walk up the path that led to where we would taste Cape Kontrei Cuisine?kontrei being the Afrikaans (the local language) word for rural or regional cooking.

Like Filipinos, South Africans are also just beginning to know about their own regional cooking. One of the wine makers told me it was the first time she had tasted pig?s ears.

Sixteen chefs gave tastings of their interpretations of regional dishes, with each one paired with a wine although the booths had several wines for the choosing. The first night was indeed a huge welcome, and we were bombarded by so many sensory experiences.

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