Friday started off with a breakfast at Webersburg straight out of a Vermeer painting. Mid-winter farmhouse kitchen with burnished copper, terracotta tiles and yellowwood. There were even maids, although they weren’t wearing bonnets or pearl earrings. The invitation to the 2010 La Motte Shiraz Experience put kick-off down for 8h30, but birthday boy Emile Joubert and I were a fashionably 40 minutes late, and we were among the earliest arrivals.

Breakfast with Vermeer

The highlight of the morning’s activities was an address on the Secrets of Syrah by Aussie Shiraz Supremo Geoff Merrill, whose trademark luxurious moustache has been reduced to conform to the new Age of Austerity. Thank heavens his sense of humour has not undergone any such contractions. “I’m fat, over fifty and going broke” was his opening statement to the assembled jewels of the SA spittoon “I wish my old man had sold smokes” – a humorous reference to the Rupert tobacco fortune which established this XXL Xanadu on the outskirts of Franschhoek.

Geoff Merrill

Geoff’s best joke was his claim to have never met Robert Parker nor had his wines reviewed by the Bull-shitter of Baltimore. “When they ask me for my Parker scores in China, I make them up. Which Parker are they on about, anyway?” Certainly my worst wine in the blind tasting of a dozen international benchmark Shirazes that followed Geoff’s comedy routine was the 2006 Alban Vineyards Syrah from Edna Valley (a most Australian geographical name) in California that Bob scores a whopping 96-98 points. The last wine of the flight, Geoff declared it to be Grange Hermitage, or was that another joke?

He had the last laugh though as the top wine according to the wisdom of the assembled crowd was his own Henley 2004 from McLaren Vale (which was in my top three). My favourite wine was the host’s drop, the La Motte Shiraz Viognier 2007, which was also the morning’s cheapest wine at R179. But then I always was a cheap date. If it weren’t for a dodgy bottle that suppressed the scores on one half of the room, it would have done far better than 8th place overall.

But hats off to Hein Koegelenberg for putting his money and faith in the wisdom of crowds rather than the prejudices of Platter, the partial and sighted (as opposed to partially sighted) guide that some people (who should know better) hold up as the arbiter of quality in SA wine. As one road hog (David Finlayson) asked us en-route to the Judgment of Franschhoek “when are the Platter five star wines being announced?” Quite frankly, Who Cares? As Geoff memorably named one of his brands. Alas, it didn’t sell as “retailers thought we were pulling the piss” – a bit like Platter then.

Hein Koegelenberg

Related posts:

1. A leopard leaps in Franschhoek A new big cat has joined the leopards in the...
2. Explosions at Elim The future of SA fine wine is unfolding way down...
3. Wendy goes shopping There are two questions on everyone’s lips re. the Saturday...
4. Franschhoek takes on the mad mullahs of Tehran When the Iranians threatened to close the Straits of Hormuz...
5. Welsh wisdom: Cape Town restaurant prices “absolutely mad” Jonathan Davies is a chef and restaurant consultant from the...

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