When I was 16 I met a very nice, cute girl. She lived in Cape Town and I live in Johannesburg. We met through IRC and had one of the sweetest “flings” online, with a brief off-line kissing-friends visit to her family’s wine farm in Franschhoek.
I remember the day I visited her. I was on holiday with my parents in CT and asked them to drop me off so I could spend time with the girl who had lifted their phone bill higher than Zimbabwe’s inflation rate.
I’m not going to reveal the sweet romance this girl and I shared over a weekend, but more the romance I shared with her father’s Merlot and the breaking of my so-called wine-tasting virginity.
You see, she had been brought up on a vineyard (a very nice place indeed) and I had been brought up in the city by parents who, to this day, would get awfully drunk on a thimble of the good grape, so the contrast was there and we had a lot to teach one another about our teenage lives.
She taught me about good wine. The best, in my opinion. Hers.
You see, since this holiday fling with a fine Merlot, I have yet to find a wine that I truly enjoy as much as I did that day’s. Whenever I see a bottle store, I dash inside and ask for it by name — 99 out of 100 times I am disappointed as no one seems to stock it.
Enter the internet. Web 2.0, in fact. Thought Leader nogal!
I referred to IRC in a previous Thought Leader post and hyperlinked “glass of wine” to the amazing wine farm’s website, Moreson.
The next day I received an email saying I had received a comment — it was her. My long-lost wine girl. We caught up on Skype, I read her blog (where she documents these events) and we are now friends again thanks to Web 2.0.
So the point of this post is not to claim that I am some kind of wine connoisseur, or to imply that this is some rekindled love story that matters to the world. It’s just a fun tale of two friends, the internet and what I call Wine 2.0.
You see, yesterday I received a gift at my office. Three bottles of the finest Merlot I’ve ever tasted. Hers. Needless to say, it also came with an order form — so if anyone out there wants to taste what I’m talking about, drop me a mail and I’ll hook you up!
Such kind words. After reading this I remembered what it was like to be 16. Man it feels like a lifetime ago. I hope you really enjoy the Merlot honey.
An interesting view of the automotive industry. Where do you see the future of the industry, will it ever recover or will there be major casulties?