GREAT WINES FROM SOUTH AFRICA

WINE

There is some interesting nomenclature regarding wine in ancient times.

For example:

A WINE. At the old universities a once common name for a wine-party.

WINE OF APE. In Chaucer's Prologue to the Manciple's Tale, the Manciple says," I trow that ye have drunken wine of ape" - i.e. wine to make you foolishly drunk; in French vin de singe.

SATAN, according to Rabbinical tradition, came to Noah when he was planting vines, and slew a lamb, a lion, a pig and an ape, to teach Noah that man, in turn, reveals the characteristics of all four according to the amount of liquor consumed.

MONKEY BUSINESS

The peaceful and incredibly beautiful village of Scarborough on the western coastline of the Cape Peninsula is at war!!!!!!!!

Troops of Chacma baboons lead by an alpha male known as "William the Conqueror" have the local residents swinging from the lampshades. These baboons are tremendously aggressive, especially when hungry. It is a fact that no amount of wealth can protect the residents against a hungry baboon.

The community is split between those who respect that these marauders should be saved and those who are just fed up with these stone - throwing hooligans. Are they going to go the same way as the Khoisan who used to roam the Cape Peninsula? The bad news is that it is probably inevitable that the baboons will gradually be forced into extinction.

But how does all of this impact on the wine industry?