Kenya – My Day by Day Exploits: Day 1

It had almost been a year since I was on home soil, meaning every morsel of my body was exploding with excitement as the wheels dug into the runway tarmac. From the new temporary International Arrivals Terminus that is currently being made use of, to the herds of gazelles, zebras and two towering giraffes I got to see while still within the airport (on the adjacent open fields); the start to this trip foreshadowed nothing but an adventure… an adventure that I was eager to get started!

…Continuing on to our final destination, home, we were further met by pristine roads, light traffic and youthful green vegetation all around that made the drive remarkably quick and pleasantly uneventful. You’ve got to love Nairobi in December.

Once home, we sat outside in the backyard catching up; which in our family means tonnes of insults thrown around. It’s sheer humour I tell you! With the only thing that can make it better being some glasses of wine to loosen our tongues and make it easier to go for the jugular. With my unofficial role as the wine selector (I believe it’s both some form of test to gauge just how much wine knowledge I’ve gathered since our last encounter, as well as my inexplicable excitement when I have a wine list or cellar in front of me), I was requested to select a wine to go with said setting…

I chose a 2007 Grenache Blanc from Signal Hill (South Africa), with my reasoning being I wasn’t too sure how well it would have held up being 6 years old, which added to the thrill of trying an unfamiliar variety.

The bottle had an invigorating complexity and had surprisingly maintained its freshness this long. It was riddled with notes of walnuts and had the slightest hint of stone fruits that only appeared after looking hard for them. I rather enjoyed the wine as each sip got me to think a little harder about it. However, I couldn’t tell how the others felt as the atmosphere around was overly jovial already. I’d have about two weeks time to have a feel for their likes and dislikes…