Remember the Nuns from Uganda that visited in 2006?
Throughout the years we have kept contact by e-mail and most questions could be answered, but advising on the winery was difficult as I didn’t have a clear idea of their setup. It was time for a visit to the sisters...
Our ten day visit to Uganda in April 2011 coincided with Easter weekend. In our guest rooms at the monastery we would wake up at six o’clock in the morning with the beautiful pure harmonization of voices as they sang Halleluiah. They were singing and praying morning, noon and night. Their faces shone with joy and peace and at the end of the visit I had a hard time convincing Lindelize to return with me to South Africa!
The sisters took us to explore the monastery gardens and we found their three vineyards to be very well managed. The vines were planted in gravel of sandstone, quartz and schist which they cover with dry banana leaves as mulch under the vines. The vineyards are covered to protect the grapes from birds and I found the vines to be of much more moderate growth than expected, neatly managed and generally in very good condition. The old French vines which the sisters call “Granny grape” apparently have red juice, and was showing the promise of a good crop for the August harvest. Could it be Alicante Bouche? Having red juice narrows the cultivar identification down to only a few. It could also be Catawba. Or Pontac, or Souzao? But whatever it is, the flavours in their wine are impressive and the colour inky dark, and of course deliciously sweet, exactly what they had been aiming for.
It remains somewhat of a mystery why the Shiraz vineyard didn’t bear the last season after two fruitful crops, but my suggestion was to prune it again, so in a matter of two days every vine was cut back in order to push out new shoots again. I trust they may bear again for the February 2012 vintage. For winemaking they are getting better equipped now and they have a building that serves as winery at the moment, although they still plan to construct another facility.
The High Commission of South Africa in Kampala invited Lindelize and I to attend the Freedom day celebrations on April 27th. High Commissioner Quelane made specific reference to the relationship between South Africa and Uganda due to this winemaking project and that it is a good example of positive stories to be told on Freedom Day. A toast was proposed on the people of Uganda and South Africa using the wine made by the Poor Clares from Mbarara.