2012 was one comet vintage for Anri Truter, winemaker at Beyerskloof. But talk about bad timing. Being in the family way, he has to brave the winter piazzas and pizzas of Rome in January to fit in his prize of a trip for two to the Eternal City as Diners Club Young Winemaker of the Year. A prize he palmed for his Diesel Pinotage 2010 which retails at R400 in the tasting room. We tasted it in Czech crystal on Wednesday.

Sales manager Andre Franzen (below) confided that Riedel stemware is off the menu as Stellenbosch University students steal 100 glasses a month from the tasting room. An incredible statistic as there are not even 100 students in final year oenology. Although as winemaking jobs are scarcer than rocking horse droppings, changing courses to a life of crime is understandable. And fashionable, too.

No wonder the Stellenbosch wine festival was cancelled this year and the Beyerskloof crime statistic supports the decision to transfer to Bedouin tents next month as enuchs and bald shemales have been hired to enforce Sharia law with scimitars on thieves.

Faith is from the 2009 vintage, is R50 more expensive and won Anri a trip to France as part of the Perold prize from ABSA for a Cape blend. Both wines are densely flavoured and are presented in imported bottles wat skrik vir niks. In this age of carbon friendliness (indeed WOSA’s only friends these days are made of carbon) quite why Beyerskloof go for such weighty bottles is a mystery. Until you realize it makes them more difficult for Stellenbosch students to steal. Only manne with the strongest thighs can hide a full Faith in those black cotton rugby shorts that pass as universal uniform in summer.