I found out three months ago, that I was going to South Africa to visit a few wineries and to learn about their wine industry, but with everything else going on that time of year it seemed like a long way away. Well, I’m on the plane right now headed to Johannesburg. This will be the longest flight I’ve ever had (17 or so hours), but with iPad & Ambien in hand, we’ll be there in no time. This is my first trip to this part of the world and I’m very excited to see, smell, listen to and taste all of what South Africa has to offer.

Wines from some of the wonderful wineries we'll be visiting this week.

We are scheduled to visit Paarl, Elgin and of course Stellenbosch while we are there, with stops at Painted Wolf, Edgebaston, Tamboerskloof, Black Pearl, Downes and a couple other wineries. One of the more intriguing visits will be having the opportunity to get in a cage for a little face time with a great white...shark !  The shark part notwithstanding, this trip looks to be scheduled at a very calm pace and will allow us to really learn and enjoy each of our visits.

I will have unlimited Internet access, so anyone who follows me on Twitter will be able to see how it is going down there--join me one my travels there, @abcwinekena. I will also be blogging about the trip in the coming weeks right here, at blog.abcfws.com!

Ken Amendola, ABC Fine Wine & Spirits wine supervisor