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Orange River Cellars Wines - Kenya's New Sweet and Dry Wines

There's a new panty remover wine brand in town.


It's from down in South Africa. In some of our geography classes, they taught of the Orange River down in South Africa. If you remember of such a lesson, it might have touched on the VanDerKloof dam on the river, or it's source from the Drakensberg mountains. I'm not sure though, whether they mentioned of the agriculture of the region, which apparently might contribute to your weekend activities.

There have been a host of South African wines, ranging from the boxed Namaquas (Namaqua is a place in South Africa, now you know) to the Mara's (yeah, it's a South African wine) to African's Five Chenin Blanc, which is among my favourite in Kenya.

Making its way into the market is the Orange River Cellars brand of wines. The group has a range of wines including boxed reds, boxed whites and probably the only boxed rose (pronounced rosay for wines) wine I have seen in this market.

Executives from the firm tell me that they also supply wine to other brands, who mostly sell wine, but do not grow the grapes required to produce the same. The grapes are grown in South Africa under surface irrigation, where water is tapped from the Orange River under gravity, without use of machines.

Orange River Cellars consists of 890 grape growers, on 4,500 hectares running 350 kilometres on both banks of the Orange River in South Africa's Nothern Cape Province. They have been growing wine since 1968.

In addition to their boxed wines, which are quite sweet, and which the executives tell me will get you drunk. They also warn that the good wines, might influence you or your friends to undress. Under such circumstances, those partaking the wine should not panic (if you know what I mean) - after all, the Bible has similar reports of wine leading to various states of undress.


Grapevines along the Orange River in South Africa


Orange River Cellars Chenin Blanc 

Other than the sweet box wines (I have never understood why people, and especially ladies love sweet wines - they are sickening sweet!), Orange River Cellars has a range of other wines including dry reds, and my favourite, dry white. This includes the Orange River Chenin Blanc.  I have not had the opportunity to try Orange River Cellar's other wines, but I did try the Chenin Blanc.

Under garments under the influence? 
For the non-French speaking, like me, Blanc is French for white. Chenin is a wine producing region in France, whose grape characteristics can see them produce a wide range of wines from neutral wines to sweet and acidic wines.

The grapes from Chenin in France are also widely grown elsewhere in the world, especially in South Africa. Chenin Blanc is a dry white wine, meaning that it is neither that acidic or sweet. Orange River Cellars' Chenin Blanc has a slight hint of acidity, but is otherwise a dry, great tasting wine.

Another great thing about the Chenin Blancs is that they get you high - come on, let's admit it, we all drink to be drunk, or tipsy, at some point. A bottle of Orange River Cellars' Chenin Blanc will get two of you drunk (hint, hint), or get you drunk on two sittings.

My sample of Chenin Blanc. 
It also comes with a screw cap, eliminating the danger of cork screw stabbing you as you open your umpteenth bottle. Best of all, you don't need a cork screw, just in case you visit her with a bottle, and she can't find the cork screw.

Other Orange River Cellar wines include Colombard, Chardonnay, Viognier, Nouvelle, Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot, Malbec, Tannat, Muscat d’Alexandrie, Red and White Muscadel.
Orange River Cellars wines are available in a number of outlets in Eastlands and also at Chandarana Supermarkets at the moment. If you have tried any of Orange River Cellars products, do share with us your experiences in the comments below.

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