Jean Daneel, Chenin champion from Napier, will start harvesting his Merlot on Wednesday when he returns to the Cape from the Liquidity Trade Show held at the Vilamoura Restaurant in Sandton last night. I do hope is head is feeling better than mine after sampling the spirituous bounty of Emil den Dulk Jnr.

Jean Daneel

It being a Portuguese restaurant and all, we thought it only polite to try Victor Azevedo’s Caipirinhas made from Germana 2-year-old Cachaça. While lemons had replaced limes (“too expensive at R16 for four small ones”) and the ice was of the cube rather than crushed variety, the taste was suitably Brazilian and we were soon all fala-ing Portuguese. Good training for our trip to Portugal next month to help Aníbal Coutinho produce his annual Portuguese wine guide.

Victor Azevedo

After Victor, it all went rapidly downhill as we fell into the clutches of spirit siren Gisela Bean who poured Buffalo Trace 10-year-old single barrel Bourbon down our cake-holes. The Eagle Rare was far rougher than the entry level Straight and the attack on the tip of the tongue took me back to the days of licking 9-volt batteries. Blanton’s Original was best and softer than a mink codpiece.

Gisela Bean

Ordered to the Compass Box table by a raucous Tom Waits song, we next poured Oak Cross and Spice Tree (my favourite, with by far the best Lord of the Organic Rings packaging) down our throats. Then came tequila with Patron Anejo my personal best followed by Pyrat XO rum (I thought it was called “Pirate rum”) which had the unexpected taste of apricots and oranges. We rounded off the evening with some grappa from Wilderer, the sexy Shiraz Reserve chased down the gullet by the uproarious Pinotage which must run a close second to Beyers Truter’s mythical Pinotage brandy.

Victor and Emil (much better than the Captain and Tennille)

Related posts:

1. Vaughan the Vaticinator With 60 minutes to spare this morning, we stopped by...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.