A Year in Paarl
A I Perold's
A Treatise
on Viticulture
A I Perold (1880-1941) was South Africa's first Professor of Viticulture and Oenology. He dedicated himself to improving the quality of grapes for wine, brandy and the table. He studied wine and brandy production in Europe, imported more than 60 varieties to the Cape and bred new ones. Perold said this book “is intended to serve both the student and the practical grape-grower. There are in it technical passages that will appeal more to the student, e.g. the chapters dealing with the biology of the vine, its external and internal morphology, the theory of grafting. My remarks on the practice of viticulture, such as those dealing with the propagation, manuring and pruning of the vine, the production of table grapes for export, will, it is hoped, assist the practical grape-grower as well as the student.” This is a newly typeset reprint, not a photocopy. Text on the 712 pages have been aligned to match the original pagination so any external references to pages in the Treatise will be valid in this edition
Available in paperback and hardback editions. 712 pages
with
A I Perold
Dr Perolds report on his Paarl experiments 1915 - 1916 reprinted with glossary, introduction and brief biography. Fascinating historical document on viticulture for wine and table grapes, wine and brandy making.
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| Finley |
Toby, Emma, Jack & Finley came to lunch with us at King William IV. We exchanged birthday gifts, and set to, accompanied by a bottle of South African Sauvignon Blanc.
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| Jack's meal included an ice-lolly for dessert |
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| Fin and Emma |
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| Fin and Toby |
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| Jack |
To London for a matinee of The Producers musical
Then dinner at Oslo Court
Summary
Krisie Enjoys the View - photo by Dan
Riviera’s cruise wasn’t the below standard experience I feared. The cabin and ship were well appointed, food was plentiful and good. Waiters were a bit slow with wine refills, but maybe we drank it faster than others.
I loved the generous salad and dessert buffets at lunch. At breakfast omelettes, fried eggs, avocado on toast etc could be ordered and everything else was on the buffet.
I was disappointed there weren’t any winery visits, and only one tasting. I think that the time spent going past Lyon to Chalon-sur-Saone – at least 27 hours 30 minute round trip would have been better spent giving additional time on the route between Arles and Lyon – especially since they dropped the cellar wine tasting in the ‘Capital of Burgundy'. I remember on my first Rhone cruise Viking started in Chalon-sur-Saone and their excursion to Beaune had a tasting plus a visit to Hospices de Beaune and free time, but Viking stopped going to Chalon-sur-Saone and I think Riviera also should.
Krisie & Dan having lunch in the Brasserie - photo courtesy of DP
I’d happily cruise again with Riviera, I liked our cabin and the small tables in the dining room. But Joan says she prefers Viking, and Joan tends to get her way.
This is why cabins on the lowest deck of river cruise ships are called 'swan view'
Day 8 – Thursday 18 September 2025 – Lyon
How my eggs came from the kitchen, I helped myself to bacon and beans from the buffet
We had a cooked breakfast and boarded the coach which left at 08:09 and arrived at the airport at 09:00. There were no demonstrations but there were delays caused by roadworks and the volume of traffic in Lyon.
I don’t know if this is standard on Riviera but four people who hadn’t booked their flights with Riviera were on the bus. Two were catching the same flight as the 39 booked through Riviera to Heathrow and two were flying to the Middle East.
The BA flight to London Heathrow was due to take off at 11:40 and the check-in desks were not due to be announced till two hours before the flight. Riviera’s representative told us to wait by the info screen and she’d be there at 09:40 to escort us to check-in and she then took the Middle East couple to their check-in desk.
At 09:40 she took us to the check-in desks: there were two, one for business class, the other economy. The Riviera Representative insisted that everyone waited there until the last person had checked-in, and then she’d take us all to security. As we were flying business class, we’d quickly been checked-in and wanted to go to the business class lounge.
As a matter of courtesy I told her so she wouldn’t be looking for us.
“The business lounge is after security”, she replied.
“Yes”
“But you can’t - I have to take you to security”
“But we want to go to the lounge now”
“But the business lounge is after security”
The conversation continued going through this loop, till Joan cut in, saying “We’re going now”, and we went.
After several glasses of Champagne we landed at Heathrow at 12:22 (London time but 13:22 French and body time.) and two and a half hours later we were at home looking forward to fish & chips, a bottle of bubbly and an early night.
We arrived in Lyon about 07:30 after sailing all night from 18:00 yesterday.
There was tediously long disembarkation talk at 09:45 and we were told that because of the possibility of demonstrations our departure would “be a little earlier” than the 08:40 we had been told before. The coach to the airport for our flight would depart from the boat at 08:00.
We spent the morning on the sunny warm sun deck.
Confluence Museum - photo by Krisie
At 13:00 was a 4h15m coach tour of Lyons. Instead we decided to go to futuristic Confluence Museum. Joan decided we’d walk; the distance isn’t great. But the route we took wasn’t straightforward and involved stairs and underpasses, seedy areas, diversions and lots of road crossings. By the time we got to the museum we were in need of a drink in the rooftop café which had good view over the city and a view of the confluence of the Saone and Rhone Rivers. I’d thought the museum was about the rivers but its name just referenced its location. ( https://museedesconfluences.fr/en )
Saone River on right joins Rhone, photo taken from the Confluence Museum
When we were museumed out we caught a tram from outside the museum entrance which swiftly took us to a stop right opposite the ship to which we headed while Dan and Krisie stayed on the tram to continue sightseeing.
Mooring location - Lyon: https://what3words.com/brushing.winters.crispy
