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Today’s twitter hoax announcing the death of Colombia’s greatest novelist Gabriel García Márquez came as a shock for less than a week ago, Juan-Carlos Rincon, the Colombian wine writer living in London and I were discussing magic realism in the drive from Tras-os-Montes to Porto. “He was born in Aracataca, a town famous for its large beach towels and three sleeping policemen. One at the entrance to the town, one in the middle and one at the end” said JC. Which sounded like a piece of magic realism.
Gabriel García Márquez
Jumbo is one of the big three supermarket chains in Portugal. Owned by French chain Auchan, every large town has one. Next month Jumbo will run a BOGOF special: buy one bottle of Astronaut Touriga Nacional (not a bad choice as the Portuguese Wine magazine hailed it as best value red last year) and get one bottle of Astronaut Swartland Pinotage free. Distributed by Miguel Grijo of iVin and made by Anibal Coutinho (shown below) this is the wine that should put Pinotage sales in Portugal into orbit.
Francisco Ferreira is the great-great-great-great-grandson of Dona Antonia Adelaide Ferreira, first lady of Port in the Victorian era, who memorably escaped drowning in the Douro by using her crinoline as a floatation device. We had dinner together tonight, along with wine writer and Swartland winemaker Anibal Coutinho (below) in Francisco’s new slate eight suite boutique hotel at his Vallado quinta on the banks of the Douro outside Regua.
At dinner last night in the garden of a hotel clinging to the rocks above the crashing Atlantic Ocean – real Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil stuff – I wondered where it all went wrong for SA brandy. We’d ordered a round of Boplaas CWG brandies and they arrived in crystal sherry copitas. Beautiful but inappropriate. When we requested snifters, the waitron explained that those were for Cognac. Indeed we had some trouble even ordering brandy, while of Cognacs and Armagnacs there were plenty to be had.
France has a stranglehold on Champagne and fine brandy and no matter how hard SA producers try, little progress seems to be made. The Fundi Project to train 2010 sommeliers in time for the World Cup seems to have failed utterly, with much marketing moolah squandered. So where should hoteliers send their staff for training? Next weekend’s Fine Brandy Festival at the Roundhouse is as good a place as any to start. After all, the place is home to Joakim Hansi Blackadder, SA’s top sommelier, who would never serve brandy in a sherry copita, even if it was made by Riedel.
Portuguese wine guru Aníbal Coutinho and I have a running joke. Every time we hit a quintessential Portuguese wine producer/village/appellation on our annual tasting trips around the land of presunto and octopus rice, it becomes “the St. Émilion of Portuguese Wine.” There are several so far: Santar, Estremoz, Baccalhôa… The back of Hall B at last weekend’s Stellenbosch Wine Festival – which for a while was billed as the 10th when it wasn’t – convinced me that the Helderberg is the St. Émillion of SA.
For starters, the earnest young pourers in their buttoned down preppy shirts from Rust en Vrede and Ernie Els have a smart self-confidence and bushy tailed enthusiasm that goes a long way to justifying the prices asked, which are not cheap. But what wines: the Rust en Vrede 2008 red blend narrowly beat the Meerlust Rubicon 2007 and Kanonkop Paul Sauer 2008 as Red of Show in my humble opinion – but then it does contain Shiraz, which is outrageously promiscuous when young. Perhaps the others will be more attractive with some bottle age, so it looks like I’ll have to buy all three. Forget about using terroir to sell wine – testosterone is so much more effective.
Ernie's rugby white at RG's Kebab Mahal in Sea Point
With 60 minutes to spare this morning, we stopped by Vaughan Johnson’s waterfront wine emporium for a realism injection. Vaughan was not happy. “July was our quietest month in 20 years. We’re in the depths of a serious recession.” Portuguese winemaker Aníbal Coutinho attempted to cheer him up with two bottles of Swartland wine he’d made, the Astronaut Chenin Blanc and Pinotage, both 2010 vintages.
Vaughan cast a suspicious eye at the labels through his Lady Gaga spectacles before taking us on a tour of the labels displayed in his shop. His conclusion? “Nothing is good.” Stopping at the shelf labeled hopefully “The Cape’s Best” he commented “You’d expect some decent labels here, but there’s nothing. The best packaging is Johann Rupert’s Cape of Good Hope Pinotage – it comes in a box which the tourists love – but that’s R200 a bottle.” “I thought you don’t like Pinotage,” I offered. “I don’t” he replied.
Vaughan Johnson and Hanneli Rupert-Koegelenberg last year
Last week I again wrote about the shock sale of Klein Constantia in the Sunday Times, a story that shot up on the charts on winenews as well.
In the cellars of KC: winemakers Adam Mason and Anibal Coutinho
Last day in Lisboa. Dinner last night with Trapiche winemaker Daniel Pi at Brasserie de L’Entrecôte – Headquarters restaurant on Buitengracht in Cape Town with attitude replaced by naughty children pushing past your chair and steak from Holland. As meat is the only thing on the menu, we’d brought along pasteis de nata from the suburb of Belém next door, for dessert. Two each, which we doused in cinnamon and ate with a twenty year old Fonseca tawny and a twenty year old ruby port from Taylors. Tawny was my food and wine match and Daniel tweeted photos to his 450 followers.
Daniel (holding the dessert) and Anibal last night
To Robertson wine marketer Johann de Wet who dismiss tweets with “who cares” (e.g. the JdW algorithm on my first tweets received this morning. FoodWineGuru: “WOW it’s hot under the lights this morning @ Expresso. What a lovely man is Michael Mol?” JdW: “who cares?” ColynTruter: “Monday, supposed to b holiday but need to finish some work…can’t wait to sleep in one day” JdW: “who cares”) I can report that tweets do work.
Johann de Wet
While the Swartland All Stars started their slow trek back to the Cape, Portuguese wine making/writing/buying/drinking/dancing phenomenon Aníbal Coutinho launched his Next Level Siebritskloof wines at Societi Bistro. Meerlust seigneur Hannes Myburgh liked his Next Level Pinotage so much, he took a glass to his table. “You’ll have to start paying me commission” joked Hannes “after sales of your Biography of a Vintage went viral after that photo of me reading a copy at Arts on Main.” True, sales of my latest potboiler at Food|Wine|Design exceeded all expectations.
Aníbal, Hannes and a glass of Next Level Pinotage
