A museum of wine?!
All of our dreams have come true as we visit a museum dedicated to wine making and wine drinking. In this episode we explore The Story of Wine, a wine museum at the renowned wine farm Babylonstoren in Stellenbosh, South Africa.
Elsa, the Babylonstoren museologist, takes us through the museum and steps up our wine knowledge and tells us whether red wine should be refrigerated, the ideal wine glass for different types, and what regions can produce good wine.
Subscribe to the podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/roadshow-and-tell/id1666756225
Follow us on Instagram to see photos of stuff mentioned in this episode: @roadshowandtellpodcast
A museum of wine?!
All of our dreams have come true as we visit a museum dedicated to wine making and wine drinking. In this episode we explore The Story of Wine, a wine museum at the renowned wine farm Babylonstoren in Stellenbosh, South Africa.
Elsa, the Babylonstoren museologist, takes us through the museum and steps up our wine knowledge and tells us whether red wine should be refrigerated, the ideal wine glass for different types, and what regions can produce good wine.
Subscribe to the podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/roadshow-and-tell/id1666756225
Follow us on Instagram to see photos of stuff mentioned in this episode: @roadshowandtellpodcast
there are people that can actually taste the difference between wine from one side of the hill and the other.
Corkscrew man:Who invented the first corkscrews is lost to time
Elsa:United Kingdom is now making sparkling wines that are winning prizes left, right and center.
Kate:Welcome to Roadshow and Tell, a podcast for people hoping to improve their pub trivia team score. I'm your host, Kate, and I'll visit museums so you can learn things you never knew you wanted to. When I found out there was a wine museum in South Africa during my trip, my excitement bubbled like a perfectly aged champagne and I knew I had to go. The said wine museum is called The Story of Wine and nestled in the Stellenbosch wine region of South Africa. The museum is part of the renowned Babylonstoren wine farm, or vineyard. It's located just 40 minutes from the Cape Town city centre by car, and Babylonstoren stands tall as one of the largest and most historic wine farms in the Western Cape. But it's more than just a wine farm and a museum. There's luxury accommodation and a spa, a farm to table restaurant, and absolutely breathtaking gardens. I speak with Elsa, the museologist at Babylonstoren, on all things wine, including what makes a good glass of wine, the history of wine in South Africa, and what was Napoleon's favourite bottle of wine. So pour yourself a glass and get ready to sip and learn about all things wine.
Elsa:So Babylonstoren is a, a farm in the Cape Winelands, and it started in the 16 hundreds when a lot of farms were granted to The colonists coming from abroad, from the Netherland specifically, and the farm's name comes from, we've got a little hill on the farm, or Copi, as we would say, Afrikaans, and it reminded the gentleman who was given this farm of the Tower of Babel, and that's why he called it Babylonstoren coming from the Dutch.
Kate:Can you tell me how the story of wine came to be?
Elsa:So I think at Babylonstoren tour we've been making wine for, I would want to say hundreds of years. And wine is such a special part of our story at Babylonstoren that we wanted to create a space where that history and ethos is sort of celebrated and that's how the story of wine came about. Rather than focus too much on the history, we wanted to create a nice, fun playful, visceral experience for anybody, whether they're a wine connoisseur or someone who just likes to have a glass of wine at lunch. So we wanted to create a space that's sort of friendly and accessible to, to a wide variety of people.
Kate:Lovely. And this focuses more on the history and celebration of wine itself. So what is the history of wine?
Elsa:So the history of wine dates back, for millennia. So scholars believe that the first wine was made in Persia or in the Middle East, if you will. There's a lot of discussion about exactly where the first wine was made, but it comes from biblical times. And obviously you've got beer that originated in Egypt and wine sort of from that same sort of area. And that's sort of how, how it all started and obviously the more they made it, the, the better they got at it. And if you look at the history and ancient texts wine features quite prominently in a lot of the, the scholarly writings. And, and it sort of developed across the world and our wine history in South Africa started in 1652 when Jan van Riebeeck arrived from the Netherlands on a ship and said, this spot looks like a great place to practice some agriculture.
Kate:How was his wine that he made when he came over?
Elsa:So it took him a couple years to really get going with wine production. So he arrived in 1652 and in his diary entry from, I forget the exact date, but 1659 he was very pleased to announce that he had finally made drinkable wine. Now, his drinkable wine and our version of drinkable wine probably differs quite, quite a bit. So in those days, wine probably tasted a lot more like vinegar than, than our palates would allow for. But according to him, he made successful wine in 1659. And we actually have. I did a sort of an experimental project this year during our harvest season where we made wine in the same manner that they would have in the 17, 18 hundreds.
Kate:What did it taste like?
Elsa:So we still have it in our in our cellar. And the idea is that we would will release it sort of to be part of a special museum tasting later on. And it's, and it's interesting. It's a quite a bit drier than one would imagine, because in those days they also made fortified wine where they would add some spirits to natural wine and sweeteners and all kinds of other interesting things. I mean, just the way that wine tastes now and the way that they did many, many years ago is it's quite, quite different. And it's, it's interesting to be able to also give our visitors a sense for that difference.
Kate:And what's the closest varietal that that wine would be in today's terms?
Elsa:So we made that wine with chenin blanc. And chenin blanc is one of the oldest varietals well on earth and, and that were grown in South Africa along with They also planted back in the day in muscadel. And there's also a red varietal called Ponta, which was quite popular back in the day, but it was actually primarily chenin blanc and I think semillon as well. They all had different Afrikaans names. So the semillon was called, if I remember correctly,"Frans druif", which means French grape in Afrikaans and then Chenin Blanc I think was called"Groen druif", which means green grape.
Kate:There's a little myth that involves an interesting connection between Napoleon, and a Babylonstoren in wine.
Elsa:So we have a bottle of Vin de Constance in the wine museum. So Vin de Constance is a sweet wine that was made at Groote Constantia, which is the oldest wine farm in South Africa. It was established by Jan van Riebeeck. And this sweet wine was one of the first wines that they made on that farm. And it quickly became very, very popular as our sort of wine production got better and better. At some point, Napoleon got his hands on a bottle and liked it so much that it was rumoured that, that he drank a bottle a day until his death in 1882. So we have a bottle of Vin de Constance in the museum dating from 1882, the year that he passed away.
Kate:Oh, wow. I wonder if that contributed to his longevity or his death.
Elsa:It could either or. I think he's well preserved any ways from all the sugars in that sweet wine.
Kate:What are the major wine regions of South Africa?
Elsa:It's mostly centered on the Western Cape where we are now. So Obviously we've got the Cape Winelands, we've got the South coast where they make less wine. And you've got the northern Cape where there's also a little bit of wine production, but it's actually more table grape farming. The most famous are Stellenbosch, Paarl where we are right now, Franschoek. Then you've got the coastal areas like Agulhas, Elim, and the Hemel en aarde valley. You've also got the warmer areas like the Hex River Valley and Worcester and those areas. So there's a, yeah, there's a quite a sort of a variety in Klein Karoo. They also make a port style wine because it's a lot dry and a lot harder over there. So we've got a quite a diversity within a few hundred kilometer radius.
Kate:What's the significance of wine paraphernalia? Things like cork screws and bottle openers and wine glass shapes?
Elsa:So we actually have a whole section of the museum dedicated to just that. Because glassware is such a, big part of wine consumption. So, so we've got, in fact two wine glass exhibits in the museum. The one is more historical in nature, so shows all the different sort of cut glass techniques and different shapes that they would've had. And then upstairs we also have an exhibit on all the different shapes of wine glass that are optimal for tasting that a specific varietal. I actually never knew that I think there are about 20 different glass shapes that are used to taste a specific cultivar. And there's actually the Gabriel-glas glass is the one that is apparently the universal tasting glass that you can taste all wines in.
Kate:So tell me what are the factors that make good wine?
Elsa:So, I think the most important thing for a good wine is great soil. And every cultivar has a specific soil type that it likes and that it thrives in. Obviously microclimate is very important. Sunshine, the amount of rainfall it gets. And then obviously your, your viticulturist and your viniculturalist they're super important looking after the vines and the guys in the cellar that are actually making the wine and they're the ones that work their magic. So that would be my 2 cents about what's the best ingredients for a great bottle of wine.
Kate:What about soil? Tell me about soil and how it relates to wine.
Elsa:So soil is, or"terroir" as the French would call it, is probably the most important factor when you are growing vines or grape vines for use in wine. It's fascinating that on one side of a hill and the other side of the same hill, the soil can be completely different and you know, the vines that grow, they are exposed to minimally different rainfalls and amounts of sunshine and the wine that comes out of it can be completely different. And there are people that can actually taste the difference between wine from one side of the hill and the other. So soil is extremely, extremely important in wine production and wine making, and. In the museum we also have a terroir exhibit where we took soil samples from four different vineyards on, on Babylonstoren to show the diversity of soil types that we have within our few kilometer radius. And it's fascinating to see, you know, what different soils they actually are. Which allows us to grow different cultivars because they're each better suited for those different soil types.
Kate:I ask Elsa about the Wine of Origin Scheme in South Africa. It's loosely based on European systems aimed at safeguarding the naming rights of wine from designated origins.
Elsa:As far as my knowledge goes the Wine of Origin system in South Africa started with in, I know in the seventies there was a big contingent of estate owners and farmers in South Africa that really lobbied for estates to get recognition for the wines that were coming from those specific farms because we, we had a cooperative system. So the the KWV was sort of a countrywide wine cooperative that started in 1918. And they regulated the whole wine industry from that time onward, which made it really difficult for farm owners and winemakers on farms to really develop their own wines in their own way. So in the seventies there was a sort of a movement towards estate wines, and I know that's sort of where that label came about. And I stand corrected, but I think the wine of origin systems is something that also came out of this need to recognize wines that come from very specific areas within South Africa and specific vineyards within regions. I think we've got a big problem in South Africa with bulk wine that just is brought in from all kinds of different vineyards and it unfortunately does not create a great image for our wines abroad. And the, the wine of origins system, is a small part of the puzzle that really tries and promote sort of terroir driven wine making and, so that people can recognize that a wine from Stellenbosch is different to a wine from Paarl or a wine from the coastal region or whatever the case may be.
Kate:When you say bulk wine before, what do you mean? Do you mean like blends?
Elsa:So, bulk wine is basically when, when it's normally one that gets sourced from a whole bunch of different farms or vineyards and get sort of made together. And that is ex exported as as bulk wine because it's sort of a cheaper way of getting your wine out. And I mean, it's a practice that's very, very common in South Africa. Mm-hmm. But has an unfortunate side effect. It's, it's all part of the economic chain, but it does have an unfortunate side effect that it, it creates a sort of a, a problem pricing our wines as sort of premium. As sort of premium abroad.
Kate:What's the most popular part of the museum?
Elsa:Oh, very easy. So the most popular part of the story of wine is definitely our aroma quiz installation. So what we encourage visitors to do is we've got all of our Babylonstoren wines on display, and then we have the aroma profiles that fit with every wine underneath in the form of an game. So the idea is that you smell the aroma in the glass vase. Then you stick your hand into a hole that has a mystery object in it. So it's a sort of a tactile feel your way around clue. And then you guess which of the three flavors it is. And then you'll quickly discover whether you are correct or incorrect.
Kate:Are most people quite accurate with their guesses? they are,
Elsa:I must say, oh, the aroma itself is quite, in my mind, obvious. But it's not a given. So we tried to make it easy, but not too easy.
Kate:And are most people like come through the story of wine, big wine fans, sommelier, wine experts, or just a casual wine drinker?
Elsa:I would generally think that it's mostly casual wine drinkers and I think that's also why we designed the whole space to be a lot more friendly. And not too technical. Because I think wine can easily venture into a territory that's way too scientific and way too technical. What we do have is we've got an audio guide that gives you a whole other layer of experience and content so that if you are really interested in, if you know a lot about wine, it does give you an extra layer to your experience. But generally speaking, I think, you know, people just love moving through the space and interacting with it. It's also really been interesting to see how many kids love the wine museum. We definitely did not design it with children in mind. But it's been one of the most wonderful things to see how much they've been enjoying the space.
Kate:What's your favorite part of the story of wine?
Elsa:My favorite part of the story of wine is in the back we've got these peeking vats with these little sort of fantasy worlds inside of them. And it's one of those things where if you didn't know about them, you probably might walk by it without taking a peek But we invite you to sort of take the cork out and inside these little barrels, it's a local artist from Cape Town who created these little worlds for us. And they all relate to wine in a, in sort of a very horizontal way. But they're just beautiful to look at and the kids especially love them very much.
Kate:Are you able to give us a sneak peek into what sort of upcoming projects and the future of the story of Wine is?
Elsa:I can tell you that the next project that we're working on is not wine related, but it's a living history museum that we're working on and yeah. All I can tell you is that you will definitely feel as if you've stepped into the late 19th century on a working farm in the Cape winelands.
Kate:Should we go and visit the story of wine? Absolutely.
Elsa:Let's go so welcome Kate to the story of wine. I'll just point out a few things before we actually enter the museum. We've got our audio guide which is a very simple system to use. It's basically a scan and play automatic system. So we've got the audio guide available in seven different languages.. It's German, Spanish, French, Chinese, Zulu, Afrikaans, and English. And from there, everywhere you see a round icon, you just scan and you can delve into a whole other layer of interesting wine knowledge. I can maybe just give a little bit of context for the entrance.
Kate:The entrance is an impressive archway crafted from real vine branches and it leads you into a tunnel, as you move through the 15 meter long passage, you'll actually catch the scent of soil and feel a refreshing coolness in the air.
Elsa:And the idea is to really immerse visitors into the underground world of wine before they emerge into this fantastic whimsical space. So if you follow me we'll get going.
Kate:And is that birds that I can hear?
Elsa:Mm-hmm. and some water trickling beneath the roots of the vine. So the idea is that you really feel like you are underground immersed between the roots of a, of a vine. And if you take a peak on your left hand side, there's some interesting little peeking holes with little animals and butterflies and interesting little things. So we designed the wine museum to start with the historical aspects and then flow into a bit more generalist knowledge of wine and enjoying wine and that thing. So if you look on your right hand side, we have a small exhibit of interesting antiquities related to wine, different vessels different storage vessels of wine. What's this one?
Kate:It's a green. It looks like a duck.
Elsa:It looks like a duck. And it's a, a Greek wine decanter. It's quite, quite beautiful from the 20th century. We've even have a palm wine cup from Congo from the 19th century, and another example from the 17th century, from Persia, if I'm not mistaken. And all different cultures have had different ways of storing wine. And I'll show you it in a, in another part of the wine museum, we look at the different storage vessels. And on this side we've got a little bit more of a South African history of wine. So we have an old oxwagen with the three cuttings of the three first vines that Jan van Riebeeck brought with him from Europe to South Africa. So
Kate:that's all it took to start wine in this region was three cuttings of wine?
Elsa:Exactly. And that, they actually survived up in a few weeks at least. And Wow. So, no, it's amazing. And the idea was for Jan van Riebeeck to come over to Cape town and, and establish a refreshment post. The idea was actually not even to establish a colony at the very beginning. They, simply were looking for a place to grow, a few things to help the guys out that would sailing across over to India. And then they just ended up staying and making amazing wine.
Kate:Now let's briefly touch on our friend Jan Van Riebeeck. In 1652 when Van Riebeeck arrived in the Cape as an administrator, his primary mission from the Dutch East India Company was to establish a provisioning post for passing fleets. It's important to note that his instructions did not involve colonizing or conquering the local population. Basically, his role was to set up a fruit and veg store for passing ships via farming and trade with the locals. During his time on board the ship, van Riebeeck had the idea to produce wine as a way to prevent scurvy. He also introduced nuts, grapes, potatoes, cereals, apples and citrus to the Cape, forever altering the region's natural environment. Initially, he faced challenges with crop failures, leading him to bring in Dutch free settlers to cultivate the land and sell the produce back to the Dutch East India company. This was the beginning of a long and complex legacy of white settlers and conflict in Southern Africa. While Van Riebeeck's administration in the Cape colony was not marked by violence, his legacy carries a lot of complexity. Some regard him as the founding father of South Africa and associate him with Akrikaaner nationalism during the Apartheid era. However, following the end of Apartheid in 1994, the public holiday known as Founder's Day previously dedicated to Van Riebeeck was abolished reflecting a shift in societal perspectives. Now, back to wine. Do you remember that story about Napoleon enjoying a daily bottle of Vin de Constance in his later years?
Elsa:That is the one that Napolean liked to drink. Exactly. I think it's the most significant object in our collection. So really, really interesting story, and everybody asks me if I think the wine is still drinkable, it's a question, but we're not gonna find the answer out unfortunately. So, and over here we've got our display of different glass vessels and wine glasses. So you'll see a whole bunch of different designs from cut glass to you know, a colored glass. Just some interesting bits and pieces. Some are older than others. The oldest one in the collection is from the 16 hundreds, which is this thick stemmed glass. You can see there was actually hand blown. So some beautiful examples from all over the world, and
Kate:this one has two corks in it.
Elsa:Yeah. I think the idea would be that you actually would be able to use it as a glass as well. I'm not a hundred percent sure. So you, you would
Kate:turn it upside
Elsa:down. Upside down and take the cork out on the other end. Exactly. We're gonna move over to this side. So over here we talk a little bit about the history of agriculture in South Africa. And wine obviously played a big part in that history. We also, unfortunately, have some darker spots in our history of agriculture in South Africa related to slavery and through the treatment of farm workers. Over here we have a really interesting short film that we made a bout a gentleman whose father was part of the DOP system. Now, the DOP system was a way of paying workers with bad wine as part of their salary, if you will. And it's a practice that unfortunately contributed to a, a widespread alk alcoholism fetal alcohol syndrome. It's really a very, you know, a, a negative part of our history in, in South Africa. We even in the cabinet have that copper mug was one of the mugs that we was used for that for that system back in the day. And un yeah, fortunately DOP system was abolished the sixties, 1960s, if I'm not mistaken, but it took a number of years for it to be completely phased out. And then we have paraphernalia. So we have this fascinating collection of cork screws.
Kate:There's a lot of cork screws there.
Elsa:That's a lot of cork screws. And we bought it from one gentleman who all from one, one person, one collector, who was willing to part with only a part of his collection since it's only a part of his collection, I'm gonna
Kate:have to do an episode on a corkscrew
Elsa:collection. Exactly. So super, super interesting and. On our timeline, we show how the patent of, corkscrews developed over time, and it's really interesting to see what little bits of technology, became more important.
Kate:Surprisingly, the corkscrew from 1696 looks a lot like the corkscrew we have today. Exactly.
Elsa:It does, and it basically just uses brute force to get the cork out, whereas as time goes on, technology plays a role in how we figured out different ways and different yeah mechanisms to get the, the cork out of the bottle in an easier way
Kate:and also make it fun. So what's your favorite cork screw?
Elsa:I like the little elephant. I also like this, this one over here, which is a actual piece of a vine like vine wood, if you were that's uses the handle. And it's always interesting. People always ask me, what is the little brush at the end for? So you'll see a number of the corkscrews have brushes incorporated, and as far as my knowledge goes, Obviously people only drank wine many centuries ago that, you know, had aged quite a bit, and that was the only way to ensure that the wine was drinkable. And so the, the brush was to used twofold one once to get the, the dust off the bottles. so You can actually, you know, see what it was. And the other one a lot of the bottles were sealed with wax. So it was a way to once you'd sliced open the wax to get the extra debris off. And then over here we've got a little installation about different storage mechanisms. So there's a Japanese wine gourd, which is quite interesting. So they put wine in a, in like a calabash. Obviously you've got other different materials. You've got, you know, people aging wine in big clay amphora s. In, I know in Georgia that's a common practice. We at Babylonstoren we also have a few amphoras that we aged some of our wines in. And then we also have a display with all the different sizes of all the different wine bottles each with their, with a name. So it's, it's one thing that I always forget and always like to come back to the wine museum to check if I remember the correct name for the correct sized bottle.
Kate:If you're wondering, the sizes start from demi, standard, magnum,, jeroboam, methuselah, salmanazar, balthazar, nebuchadnezzar, melchior and Primate or Goliath at 27 litres of wine.
Elsa:So they all have names and these all biblical names are coming from the Middle East. And then over here we have a enormous map of the world where we highlight all the areas where wine is made or produced including some interesting countries like India, China, and Japan. They're not the biggest wine producers, but they do make some wine. We obviously have Australia as well.
Kate:And is South Africa the only part of Africa that produces wine?
Elsa:So in the north of Africa, so we have Algeria up there as well as part of our sort of European contingent. So, wine really likes a Mediterranean style climate, so it's not really much elsewhere in Africa that you really find that. So the north and the south is basically the best, the best parts of the continent.
Kate:Canada as well I can see on Ontario, produces wine. That's not very Mediterranean. No, it's not Mediterranean.
Elsa:However, they do make some nice ice wine. So ice wine is when you harvest the grapes while it's all frozen. Press it and make like a sweet, sweet wine. And they're really, really, really great. And I think with climate change we've got some more countries to add to, to the list or to our map at least. Yeah, you know, there's a lot of countries that weren't making wine that are now making wine, an exceptional wine at that. So including United Kingdom is now making sparkling wines that are winning prizes left, right and center. This is the soil exhibit. So you'll see we've got these four gigantic vials that we filled with soil samples. And it was basically like they drill a sample out so that you can see exactly the layers as it would come out of the earth. And it's fascinating to see how different the soil is between the different areas. So some of them are a little bit more elevated. So if you look here this is the property where we are standing now and then these four points are from the different elevations and are different vineyards and.. And this is our aroma installation. So as explained the idea with the installation is you squeeze the little gadget over here, you smell and then you feel the mystery object inside the hole. And then you guess which aroma you smell. Wonder if you wanna give it a try.
Kate:I'm gonna give this one a try. So I'm a big Shiraz drinker, so I'm give that one a try Chazz, because I surely will be able to get this. Mm-hmm. I'll give this a smell. Ooh. The options are black pepper, banana, and bread, and that to me, smells like black pepper. I'm gonna give it a feel. Oh, yep. I can feel something that feels like a pepper grinder. Mm-hmm. So yes, it went green. Is that a noise
Elsa:as well? Yeah, it's a little bird. and then you, and then you get a cow if you're wrong. Makes sense.
Kate:Awesome. Yeah.
Elsa:Maybe an interesting little thing to point out, this is a, interview with a fellow from who we bought the cork screw collection. So you just have a seat and then the video starts playing.
Corkscrew man:Cork screws are to wine bottles what the sun is to the vine. And the wine maker is to the connoisseur who appreciates his or her talents. But where did they come from and when did they originate? Who invented the first corkscrews is lost to time, but almost certainly was derived from the manufacturer of firearms.
Kate:The rest is for the corkscrew museum.
Elsa:Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Um, So these are all little miniatures of interesting bits and pieces related to wine. So this is all the different trellissing methods that, that exist in the world for training vines because different training methods make it easier or, suit a certain cultivar better than others. And another interesting thing is different trellissing methods are used in different parts of the world. So I know for example, that federaled and Smart Dyson are two uh, trellising methods that are very popular in South Africa.
Kate:So the smart Dyson tressling method was not invented by James Dyson of Dyson Vacuum fame. Instead, credit goes to Viticulturists, Richard Smart and John Dyson, who are Australian and American respectively. It basically uses a double canopy by positioning shoots facing both upwards and downwards.
Elsa:We also have a lot of bush vines. Bush vines just means you just let it grow and do its thing with minimal intervention But perold was a a viticulturalist from South Africa, so basically he's the father of Pinotage. So pinotage is the combination of pinot noir and hermitage, and he was the one that basically made that grape or made that grape varietal. And these are all the different secateurs that we have. And idea of pruning more corks. Crews. And worms. And worms. So worms, basically, a worm is the name for the spiral at the end of a cork screw. And then all the different types of corks that you get. And then this is what I was talking about, my favorite part of the wine museum, these different little worlds. So if you pop open, if you pull out the cork then you have a peek inside. Ooh, there's disco ball. This is a disco. Yeah. And then you, if you turn the, if you turn the lever around, this one's called the
Kate:effects of alcohol. So each of these has a different Yeah.
Elsa:A different theme. Exactly. And if you, if you take the audio guide, then it'll tell you a little story about each one. This one is actually quite beautiful to see
Kate:farming from Earth to Mars.
Elsa:Yeah. So it's really beautiful. Other interesting bit, this is we have seven, obviously seven different languages in the museum. And these are all poems in those seven different languages. And in fact, this is Zulu interesting enough, we had someone who write us a poem about wine because there wasn't a poem that existed in Zulu when we started. So you just pick one and it'll start playing dramatically.
Kate:We head to the upstairs level for more exhibits on wine in general. There's an infographic about the different bunch shapes of different varietals. And then we arrive at a food and wine pairing infographic.
Elsa:So we've got all of our different Babylonstoren wines, and they all pair with different interesting flavors of food. And then on the globe, you'll see this is like a typical wine wheel as the industry we call it. With all the different flavors that you'll see.
Kate:How do you get banana flavor in a wine?
Elsa:It's usually quite subtle, but you will, in, for example, in a Pinotage, sometimes you find a green banana note. A green banana's got like this like this sort of a green unripe aroma and that You'll sometimes find in there. And this is also one of, this is also another favorite of our installations.
Kate:There is a display of super realistic looking leaves, but they are ceramic and hand painted
Elsa:So this exhibit is all about every single cultivar also has a different vine leaf shape. And these are all made by a company called Ceramic Matters. And this is the glasses exhibit I was talking about. As you can see, we've got, gosh, almost, 20 glasses with each, a different shape. And that is best for the different varietals. Then obviously when you are tasting a wine, you're looking for different color notes. So this is just in the same way that you would have an aroma wheel. You also have a color wheel for wine. So we just made a different a installation for it to show that you are looking for different colors when tasting a wine.
Kate:And is this actual wine in the glasses here?
Elsa:No, no, no, no. This is, so we, we, we basically colored it with them. So it's a resin. And the idea is, again, this is not meant to represent specific wines. It's more the colors that you would look out for as you sort of lift your glass up to the light and you are looking for different tones. So when you describe a wine, it either has a straw tone or, or a orange tone or a brown tinge. And that's to help you Yeah. Figure out those explanations. This is all about the the whole olfactory experience of tasting a wine and all the different bits and pieces of your biology that, that plays plays a role in that process.
Kate:So when you drink one sip of wine, you have things firing in your nasal cavity, palate, taste buds, tongue and oral cavity.
Elsa:And I think what they didn't include there is obviously there's a whole emotional aspect that also comes into play. So the moment that you taste the wine, it triggers maybe, you know, parts of your brain where you remember tasting, something you've tasted before or you've never tasted, but it reminds you of something from a completely different place. So really interesting that the emotive part of, of tasting a wine is also really important, and that also is how it builds muscle memory for those guys that are able to taste the difference between one side of a hill and the other in terms of the same cultivar. That's, that building up of a, a memory bank of tastes is really, really important.
Kate:What's inside a bottle of wine.
Elsa:We really try to sort of make the exhibits be as accessible as possible to the everyday person. So not talk too much about the technical details, but you know, what would the average person like to know what is inside a bottle of wine? So you know how the weight and the grapes how many grapes, how many calories, how many glasses, that thing.
Kate:Friends. It might be best if you don't know exactly what's in a bottle of wine, but for the curious it's approximately 520 grapes, a lot of water, anthocyanins acids, including tartaric, malic, lactic, citric, succinic, and acetic and sugar minerals including iron, nitrogen, phosphorus, fluoride, sulfur, and calcium. So yeah, as well as fruit. There's also some nutritious minerals in your glass of wine. The infographic also says that one bottle of wine will serve two drinkers for two plus hours, and I may want that fact peer reviewed possibly by my peers
Elsa:we've got a a little installation about the different serving, ideal serving temperatures. Your dessert wines are served at 19 degrees higher. Yeah. Higher temperatures than your ice wine, for example, served ice cold.
Kate:So this recommends that you serve light bodied red and full body red from 13 to 17 degrees Celsius. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Does this mean we should be putting reds in the fridge?
Elsa:I, I actually do often, but especially in South Africa where it gets extremely hot, your wine heats up so quickly if it's, and you're standing outside. So I'm often partial to dunking mine in an ice bucket if I have to.
Kate:So when wine experts say that red wine should be served at room temperature, they really mean cellar room temperature. In warm climates like South Africa and Australia, room temperature is rarely under 20 degrees Celsius, so it's a good idea to refrigerate the wine for a little bit before opening it to bring down its temperature so it doesn't lose its character.
Elsa:This, how do you say this? So, Methode Cap Classique is the traditional name that we give in South Africa to our sparkling wines. Obviously we cannot call them champagne, but they are made in exactly the same way as champagne is made from France. So we did a, there's a competition that we, that we I think Vevue Clique did the same thing where they gave industrial designers, two corks and two muselet. Now muselet is the wire contraption that goes on top of the cork. And so we gave, you know, every designer two of those and they came out with a little furniture piece for us. Then this is really interesting. This is an actual Shiraz vine from Babylonstoren that we extracted from the ground and the idea is to show visitors how much is actually going on beneath the soil. If you look at where the, the ground level would be, the, the root of the vine is much longer than the, than the top part. So and there's lots of rocks attached to the roots as well. Lots of rocks. It shows also how resilient a vine is. A vine can grow through rocks and between rocks and really dig deep to get to the water that it needs to basically survive. And then over here this is a model of a grape, an actual grape that we cut out of a wood ball. And the idea is to show also exactly what does the inside of a grape look like, because the, the main membrane, the skin, the juice that's on the inside within the flesh and the pits inside all play a role when you make wine. And then we can pop in here.
Kate:Ooh. Are we inside a wine barrel right now?
Elsa:We are inside a wine barrel. We call this the cinema and in here we feature a music video that has music in it that was only made with wine glasses,
Kate:Wait, so the whole song here, Using my glasses as the instrument. Yeah. Yeah. It's very relaxing. It is very relaxing.
Elsa:And I think the idea is also to end off your experience with a, with sort of a relaxed music video to get you in the mood for the tasting room. That's what I'm looking forward
Kate:to. Entry to the story of wine is included in the admission fee to Babylonstoren Storen, which is 80 rand per person per day. This also buys you a year-long membership, so you can visit any time again throughout the year. It's open from 10:10 AM till 5:00 PM and extended opening hours until 5:30 PM in the summertime. The story of wine has great accessibility features, and as Elsa says, offers a multisensory space. The first level is wheelchair accessible, and there's an audio guide in seven languages and includes audio descriptions and commentary. Throughout the museum, there's also exhibits with video footage and captions. There's also the aroma quiz and entrance arch, which use touch and smell for you to interact with the exhibits. Elsa, thank you so much for coming on the podcast today. I've really loved learning about wine.
Elsa:You are so welcome. Thanks for visit visiting us, Kate.
Kate:I loved the story of wine. It was such a unique, playful, and accessible space. And I really love that it caters to all visitors, whether you're a tea totaler, or a wine buff, or a sommelier. there's something for everyone. And the best thing about this wine museum is that it leads you right to the entrance to the tasting room. So Prost, Gesundheit, sonté, skal, na zdravie, or cheers, I'm raising a glass to a wonderful visit to the Story of Wine Museum at Babylonstoren. Thanks for listening to Roadshow and Tell. If you enjoyed this deep dive into a specialty museum, make sure you subscribe so you don't miss an episode. We're a new podcast. So if you wanna help support us, please share it with a friend and leave a rating and review. If you are involved with or know of a regional or specialty museum that should be featured, please get in touch at roadshowandtell@gmail.com. I'm your host, Kate. Roadshow and Tell was edited and produced on the lands of the Gadigal people. I acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the various lands on which you may be listening from, and the lands that the museums featured in this podcast reside on. I also acknowledge any Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people listening to this podcast. I pay my respects to elders past, present, and emerging, and celebrate the diversity of Aboriginal peoples and their ongoing cultures and connections to the lands and waters of Australia.