Kristall Kellerei, Namibia

Posting has been a bit quiet lately, as I am travelling in Africa. A couple of days ago I visited one of three wineries in Namibia. It is in an unlikely spot, translated to Australia, north of Rockhampton. There is no winemaking or -drinking culture in Namibia, and the operation is incredibly primitive and naive: "Last year I needed to harvest very early, as I was going on holidays." Overall production is less than 1000 cases, all sold locally. They bottle in 500g bottles, which is neat. I will upload pictures later, I have difficulty doing it from the ipad. The vineyards do not look well, nor do the wines. They make a Colombard, which actually underwent a further fermentation in the bottle. It therefore was a little fizzy. The wine was unbalanced and would not be allowed to be exported if it was made in Australia. A clear wine fault - not rated. The red wine was a curious blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Ruby Cabernet and Tinta Barocca. It was pleasant, but had no real structure and a short finish - more like alcoholic grape juice (80 points). You have to be a real enthusiast to run such a venture. The lucky thing for the owner is there is very little competition. Locals who want to drink home grown wine will try his, and probably do not know better. He is able to sell his annual production at about $10 per bottle, I think.