The Dombeya Scholarship
Dombeya Scholarship 2009- Ntando in Australia, Part 4
In addition, it is amazing being part of their family. They have three daughters (Amanda, Emma and Holly) and their dog Charlie Beagle who has recently passed away due to cancer. Poor Lloyd, Charlie was the only male around in the house we had a funeral for him it was an emotional one since he was such an entertaining dog. Honestly, he lived to eat: he would raid the kitchen if anything edible is left within reach. We all had to keep doors closed at times for our rooms otherwise he would raid your room trying to find something to eat- he ate constantly!
When Anne is cooking he stood there waiting for a piece of meat to drop or something if not he would go off to sleep (he snored - haha). I heard they once took him along to a friend's dinner, he ate a quarter of their pantry they heard noises went to look and there he was busy at work. He was such a cute dog you would have never suspected it especially since he was so lethargic you would have thought it would be too much effort for him to move.
We have gone to numerous wine tastings to try and improve my palate and to experience other wines from the Margaret River region. It has been amazing. I am learning a lot we have different wines, white and red everyday at dinner from their home cellar. They really have gone out of their way for me, one of their daughters is a wine maker (Amanda), she would explain to me where certain tastes were derived during the wine making process also how you can improve or avoid certain tastes. Amanda has a fair selection of South African wines, we sometimes compare. I must say I am intrigued by the differences in wineries here. Margaret River is a combination of Stellenbosch (for the wine) and Grahamstown (for culture and theatre).
The wineries are next door to each other like in Stellies but the differences are fascinating, four wineries have caught my eye. The first one is an organic and biodynamic winery which means they harvest their fruit and rack their wines according to the moon phases (cool!), use cow dung as their fertilizer, only wild fermentation and even more interesting is that its quite common for the current vintage to finish fermenting before the previous year's one!
The second one is both a winery and brewery in one; they made a dam on the farm and built half of the restaurant on top of it to give an illusion that you are eating out in the middle of the river. The third one has paintings on their bottles of the well-known painters in Australia ranging accordingly from entry-level wines to top class.
The fourth one which is my favourite of course, their cellar door is like a South African Dutch house, their gardens are magnificent it's like walking into the botanical gardens all green and red amazing colorful, so please if haven't yet do yourself a favour go to Voyager Estate or check out their website, try their wines you wont be sorry!
I probably would have never made these observations or tasted the most amazing wines if it were not for the Shepherdson's. They have introduced me to interesting people even the former owners of Cape Mentelle, funny enough I did a project on Cape Mentelle at University so it was crazy meeting the people behind it.
What I have observed is that most wines here are blends, especially one's that are single variety at home, for example Cab Sauv is mostly blended with Merlot, Shiraz with Viognier (yes true), and Sauvignon Blanc with Semillon. I asked around at the different wineries most said it is for structure and powerful finish of the wine otherwise the wines would be thin and flat.
Lastly, wise words from a Roman wine proverb, 'No poem was ever written by a drinker of water'.
Click here to go to Dombeya Wines website.