The Wine Connection

From a Kenyan vineyard to the table of a French fusion restaurant in the heart of Nairobi, ANDANJE WOBANDA, a wine newbie, lets you in on the art of wine pairing.

One of the greatest pleasures in life has to do with the enjoyment of taste. We place special emphasis on good restaurants and when we visit new places, we gauge them by the taste of the food we ate and the drinks we imbibed. But taste is never constant, it changes as we age and as we experience new pleasures. We acquire taste for pungent cheeses and trade our nyama choma and cold Tuskers for squid ink sauces and glasses of Prosecco.

The enjoyment of wine often leads to the tasting of different varieties especially when one travels. You never stop wondering what else is out there. Unconsciously, you may become a wine enthusiast who visits wineries, gets lost in endless vineyards, discovering new wine and food pairings - learning as much as you can about wine. The list of activities may also include wine making.

So where do you start - which places do you visit - if you want to indulge your passion for wine in Kenya?

A KENYAN VINEYARD

Leleshwa is the home of Kenya’s award-winning wines. Situated in Morendat Farm, Naivasha (95km or one-and-a half-hour drive from Nairobi), is this vast farmland with a climate that is mostly hot and dry during the day and hot and wet during the night. The name Leleshwa is derived from the name of a local tree, the leleshwa, that are plentiful around the vineyard.

When we arrived on the farm for our wine tour (the first of its kind in Kenya), we were welcomed with a cup of tea and snacks before we crossed over to the vineyard to view the blooming rows of grape vines. The rows are named according to the year the grapes were planted and the type of wine they produce. From the vineyard, we visited the winery where we learnt how wine is made and bottled.