Vergelegen

Vergelegen V, this Cabernet of great distinction would compare favorably with some of the best wines I know. It is from a winery founded in 1700 in South Africa ... Who would think?

I am at Woods, an al fresco dining area behind The Wine Company of Dempsey Road, plunged in darkness. The noises of crickets and croaking frogs surround this place cloaked in the heavy humid mist that has settled over Singapore after a long and violent tropical storm.

The label in the back of the bottle informs me that Vergelegen means a place "far away" and that it was granted to the governor of the Cape in 1700. It reminds me of what I learned about wine making in South Africa from a chance encounter in a lodge in New Zealand in October last year. French Huguenots who had sailed to Cape Town asked The Dutch governor for the right to settle in the country. The governor sent them far away from the Cape so that they would not cause any trouble. It must have been Vergelegen ... and this is how wine making started in South Africa.