2006年VOA标准英语-South Africans Travel to US to Learn New Winema

By Patricia Huff
Charlottesville, Virginia
14 November 2006
 
watch South African Winemaker

Learning by doing -- that's the goal of a new internship² program for aspiring³ winemakers. Ten South Africans traveled to Virginia and California to learn the art and science of wine from a new program sponsored in part by the U.S. Government and the newly organized U.S.-South Africa Wine Foundation. With the skills they learn in the U.S., the South Africans hope to decant⁴ improved wines one day soon as the country looks to expand its share of the expanding global wine market. 

 
Wine starts with grapes, some yeast⁵, and maybe a little sugar.

Joseph is an apprentice⁶ wine-maker from France. He's learning the international craft of winemaking, along with Welcome Williams, a fellow intern¹ from South Africa.

"In America, I learn a different way of processing wine, because I am working with French guys -- they do things in a different way than in South Africa and that different way of making wine is also a good way," said Welcome.  "So I never saw this sort of process, but it works!"

Wine has been made in South Africa for more than 300 years.  But it has only been since the end of apartheid in 1994 that South African wines have become a player on the global wine market. South Africa has increased its wine exports to the United States to nearly 1 million casks a year, and is looking to sell more.

The U.S-South Africa Wine Foundation, a newly organized group, along with support from the U.S. government, is working to help South Africa improve its product through a 10-week internship program.

 
Welcome Williams
First Colony, outside Charlottesville Virginia, hosted Welcome Williams.  The winery's General Manager, Kerry Hannon, says, it's an opportunity to share knowledge with those who might otherwise not have the chance.

"The wine business is such an international community to begin with," she told us. "So I think the wine business can be a little bit more progressive in thinking on a global scale. With the South African program in particular, we're interested to be able to be really part of something to evoke⁷ a social change in another country, which is just amazing."

In the Western Cape⁸ of South Africa, where intern Welcome Williams started his career as a vintner, the conditions to grow grapes and make wines are very different than in Virginia.

"You can see from the soil also, the soil is a clay soil, so you have to do a lot of things here to make it a better wine for them -- a better grape for them. So there's a lot of things they have to do to make a better fruit," said Welcome.

After 10 weeks of tasting, testing and learning, the South Africans graduated.

Pat Kluge, an owner of a nearby vineyard, says the internships were not just about wine. "They have to sort of measure their own personal experience to what they have to find here, i.e. [that is] good weather, as opposed to four seasons.  And some of them worked in offices and now they are working in the vineyard and in the winery.  So it was interesting to observe their own emotional and physical and intellectual melding of experiences."

These newly minted winemakers hope to convince consumers that Virginia wines are good, but South African wines might be even better.

1 intern   

v.拘禁，软禁；n.实习生

参考例句：

• I worked as an intern in that firm last summer.去年夏天我在那家商行实习。
• The intern bandaged the cut as the nurse looked on.这位实习生在护士的照看下给病人包扎伤口。

2 internship   

n.实习医师，实习医师期

参考例句：

• an internship at a television station 在电视台的实习期
• a summer internship with a small stipend 薪水微薄的暑期实习

3 aspiring   

adj.有志气的；有抱负的；高耸的v.渴望；追求

参考例句：

• Aspiring musicians need hours of practice every day. 想当音乐家就要每天练许多小时。
• He came from an aspiring working-class background. 他出身于有抱负的工人阶级家庭。 来自辞典例句

4 decant   

v.慢慢倒出

参考例句：

• She always used to decant the milk into a jug.她过去总是把牛奶倒入一个壶中。
• Vintage ports must be decanted to remove natural sediments.上等的波尔图葡萄酒必须倒入其他容器中以滤除自然沉淀物。

5 yeast   

n.酵母；酵母片；泡沫；v.发酵；起泡沫

参考例句：

• Yeast can be used in making beer and bread.酵母可用于酿啤酒和发面包。
• The yeast began to work.酵母开始发酵。

6 apprentice   

n.学徒，徒弟

参考例句：

• My son is an apprentice in a furniture maker's workshop.我的儿子在一家家具厂做学徒。
• The apprentice is not yet out of his time.这徒工还没有出徒。

7 evoke   

vt.唤起，引起，使人想起

参考例句：

• These images are likely to evoke a strong response in the viewer.这些图像可能会在观众中产生强烈反响。
• Her only resource was the sympathy she could evoke.她以凭借的唯一力量就是她能从人们心底里激起的同情。

8 cape   

n.海角，岬；披肩，短披风

参考例句：

• I long for a trip to the Cape of Good Hope.我渴望到好望角去旅行。
• She was wearing a cape over her dress.她在外套上披着一件披肩。