Left to right: Mike Aramanda, Vickie Bone, Millie Aramanda, Staci Brown, Alfred VanGool, Beverlee Deardorff, John Brown, Doug Akins and Beverly Akins.
Bernadette Fideli
What can be more relaxing than sitting on the patio among friends, sipping a glass of wine and watching the sun set in the summer sky? Beverlee Deardorff invited the Wine Stewards to experience this down-home pleasure. Barbeque, potato salad and ice cream cones accompanied a variety of summer wines. These seasonal wines are lighter, more flavorful and fruitier. One such offering was Chenin Blanc from Spier Vineyards. Spier is one of South Africa’s oldest wine farms, with a recorded history dating back to 1692. It was named South Africa’s Producer of the Year in 2018. Chenin Blanc is the most widely planted variety in South Africa, where it is also known as steed. Their Chenin Blanc is both crisp and fruity with guava, pear and apple. It has a well-balanced palate and a strong finish – perfect with friends in the summer or over a picnic style meal. Laughter and talk settled into peaceful silence as the Wine Stewards enjoyed a picture-perfect sunset, truly a fitting ending to a memorable day.