Hi 23C° Low 6C° | 
GabiVille
3 minutes ago
Pendock Uncorked
22 hours, 51 minutes ago
The Wheel Deal
1 day, 19 hours ago
The Wanderer
1 week, 1 day agoView all Times LIVE Blogs
Google/analytics is a tremendous program for fine tuning a blog rather than blindly following the advice of my editor at Travel & Food, Paul Ash, who advises “just tag ‘sex’ in a posting and watch the hits pile up.” The Editorial Trinity (Andrew, Hilary and Paul) at Travel & Food were lunching at the Troyeville Hotel today (and probably still are) and I was pleased to see at least one of their reds was a biodynamic wine made by Johan Reyneke.
Angela's box of tricks
A storm of Sauvignon Blanc measuring 5 stars on the blind-sighted Richter scale struck Cape Town this lunch time. The epicenter was located at Den Anker, a Belgian moules & frites w. mayo joint on the Waterfront. The occasion was the unveiling of WINE magazine’s Top Ten Sauvignons of the year. Secrecy was shredded after Postman Pat delivered copies of November WINE magazine long before the steak tartar was served, letting the cat well and truly out of the bag to pee on the gooseberry bush.
Gary and Kathy Jordan at Den Anker earlier this month
An e-mail interlocutor reports that someone called Peter alleges on the Grape vanity blog that the only people who read the blogs of wine writers are other wine writers, which judging by the multiple hits that Uncorked experiences on a daily basis, implies that wine writing is alive and well in SA. A related point is made by Ken Forrester who e-mails that SA is the only country in the world where winewriters write about each other, rather than wine. Which says something about SA wine and SA wine writers, but I’m not sure what!
To continue this proud tradition and for my many frenemies over at Grape, a scurrilous appendix to my open letter to Angela Lloyd which has assumed cult status among the many PR agencies that have experienced the rough side of Angela’s tongue.
Dear Angela
Your comments on the Nederburg and Cape Winemakers Guild Auctions this morning on your Grape vanity blog by someone who attended neither event cannot be left to stand unchallenged by someone who was at both.
You claim to be “very sad that [the Nederburg Auction] has lost all that gloss [of the first Auctions].” How would you know? You were not at this year’s event, nor last year’s. You correctly observe that the two auctions offer “wines that aren’t exactly the same”, but then claim this is not important. In which case, I’ll swap you some Mouton Cadet for Château Mouton!
Anthony and Olive - Nederburg Auction losing gloss? Not!
“You’re the most dangerous person in SA wine” chuckled GT Ferreira in the Whale Well of the SA National Museum last night “with your focus on value for money. Our 13 year financial plan has had to be extended to a 15 year one but we’re close to making money.” Which should be a cinch if he can keep pulling gems like the Zondernaam Syrah/Grenache 2007 blend out of Miles Mossop’s capacious hat.
GT
Bumping into Victor Strugo, the galloping gastronome of the Saturday Star, in the Diners Club Lounge at Cape Town International last night, our conversation naturally started with what we’d had for lunch. “Foie gras pizza at Balducci’s” was my reply which evoked a rejoinder from Victor “well I can see you’re taking this recession seriously.” In fact I do as all the many wines consumed cost less that R100 a bottle – and that’s Cape Town Waterfront restaurant prices.
Tuesday lunch
Ask Thys Louw for the time and he rolls up his sleeve and points to a tanned but naked wrist. “My dad Tienie promised me a Tag Heuer when I made a Veritas double gold wine [the ultimate accolade from the SA wine-judging circus] or the equivalent at the Michelangelo International Wine Awards. I did it two years ago, but I’m still waiting.”
Thys needs a TAG, Tienie
Port Elizabeth is the Detroit of SA, so when the “Palate behind Platter“, Angela Lloyd, noted recently on her Grape blog that “carcity” is the reason Pinot Noir commands such high prices, PE as an appellation was thrown into the vinous spotlight.
I’d already heard from DP Burger at Glenwood in the rainy Robertsvlei valley outside Franschhoek, that pioneer garagiste Cathy Marshall is sourcing Sauvignon Blanc from the Gamtoos River Valley just outside the Friendly City. Angela’s affirmation of the quality of grapes from car city, confirms Nelson Mandela Bay as an up-and-coming appellation worth watching.
Of course whether varietal wines like those made from Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir are the best styles for car city, is a moot point. Swartland superstar Eben Sadie, for one, would argue that blends are the way to go in warmer and maritime appellations. As UK wine writer Jancis Robinson reports, Eben holds that “in warmer and maritime climates where the growing season is relatively short, so wines made from a single vine variety, so-called varietal wines, are necessarily less interesting and nuanced than a blend of different varieties.” Essentially a rerun of the June interview with Tim Atkin in Decanter that makes the same point.
Big Blend Believers: Adi, Eben and Callie
“Oh my, here comes Jancis Robinson” exclaimed Adi Badenhorst at Bar Bar Black Sheep this afternoon as a glamorous windswept angular blonde of a certain age picked her way around the cacti and clutter on the stoep of this Riebeek-Kasteel culinary landmark-in-the-making colonized by twenty Swartland producers for an appellation-wide tasting. “On second thoughts there are no TV cameras, so it probably isn’t.” Confirmed by her boots – definitely not Issey Miyake, Manolo Blahnik or Miuccia Prada.
Adi thinks he sees La Jancis in Riebeek-Kasteel
Jane MacQuitty is wine pundit on The Thunderer. She has just released her Top 100 Summer Wines. Divided into four categories (under £6, under £8, under £12 and under £25), SA gets a single selection as opposed to 58 for France, 10 for Italy and 9 for Spain. So clearly a New World Wino Jane is not.
Niel Groenewald - Jane's only SA summer pick
