With 200 days to go before the FIFA world cup kicks off, Paul Cluver IV, the Pharaoh of fragrant wines (Gewürztraminer, Riesling – both Noble Late Harvest and dry – and the awesome Seven Flags Pinot Noir) has raised his game a notch. On Friday his wines were served to royalty at the Peter Stuyvesant Ball in New York City as part of the celebrations marking the 400th birthday party for New Amsterdam aka The Big Apple. And we’re talking real blue bloods here, not the usual crowd of queens lounging around Pier Sixty on the Hudson.

Paul finalising wine for the Peter Stuyvesant Ball

Sponsored by KLM, the Ball showcased Cluver wines alongside the food of the Netherlands’ best chef, Jonnie Boer, who is a Cluver true believer. The program described dinner as “a culinary experience by Jonnie and Thérèse Boer of the Three-Michelin Star Restaurant De Librije in Zwolle. A satirical dialogue will be presented by Floor Kist, former Grandmaster of Her Majesty the Queen of the Netherlands.”

Her Royal Highness Princess Margriet graced the occasion along with the usual hoards of ambassadors, diplomats and other servants of the people who live high on the hog at tax-payers’ expense. Hopefully they featured in the satirical dialogue and Kist must be good if he’s a former Grandmaster.

But how ironic that in this the 350th year of wine being made in SA by a Dutchman and with hoards of Dutch tourists migrating to the Cape on KLM on a daily basis, our own 350 celebrations were so low key as to be invisible. Friends of Crown Prince Willem-Alexander and his Argentine beauty Princess Máxima insist the stylish couple would have loved to party with Boela Gerber at Groot Constantia. Instead, we have the Beckhams decorating a 2010 “posh Cape Town pad” with furniture from Weatherlys.

An establishment Alex, fiancé of Paul (34), is unlikely to favour with the bridal registry for their upcoming nuptials as after several years living in the east, this high-powered lawyer has more sophisticated and exotic tastes than Posh Spice. The confirmation that Alex and Paul are to tie the knot comes as no surprise to friends of the couple, but nonetheless, there is widespread wailing and tearing of Gavin Rajah creations in the Overberg as Elgin’s most eligible bachelor settles down.

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