Vomit after the Vineyards

The big white Mercedes bus drove the windy roads of the South African Franschhoek wine valley as the mountains danced along the horizon and fall colored grape vines painted the valley. We were on our way to a "cultural" vineyard tour with 50 undergrads in tow. I love a good wine tasting, but this one had the makings of a shit-storm. We arrived at the Haut Espoir organic wine farm and the owner, Rob, educated us on the flora and fauna on the approach to the wine cellar. We, then, entered the warehouse where the wine was carefully blended and stored. Here, the students broke into groups of eight wherein they were given six bottles each to freely taste and their task was to develop a blend that would be worthy of the judges palette (I was one of the judges...lucky me!) The problem is that they were mixing whites with reds and by the end of the two-hour tasting who knows what else they were adding to their "master" blends. We tasted them all and I had to spit a few...terrible! During all of this, the students continued to "taste" (or shall we say gulp and chug). One student, who by the way had never drank before, decided to partake in the wine tasting which ended in a bus disaster. That beautiful posh Mercedes bus was soon to be laden with red wine vomit as many of us staff members held his head and wiped him down.