Hi 22C° Low 8C° | 
Pendock Uncorked
5 hours, 43 minutes ago
The Wheel Deal
1 day, 2 hours ago
GabiVille
6 days, 6 hours ago
The Wanderer
1 week, 1 day agoView all Times LIVE Blogs
I wonder how many pedants noticed the deliberate mistake in the first sentence of Mr. Min’s wonderful deflation of wine pretentions in Sawubona, inflight magazine of SAA, this month: “Marsanne, Rousanne, Ugni Blanc, Viura, Macabeo, Vermentino, Verdelho, Crouchen Blanc. Not exotically-named actresses, as you may think but white wine grapes – the flamboyant nomenclature of a number of foreign performers taking to the South African wine stage.” Viura and Macabeo are the same thing.
Jane and Basil Landau make a super Semillon says Mr. Min
Alex Dale, the Vinnie Jones of SA wine, hails Eben Sadie as the most exciting winemaker in SA. And he’s not wrong. Ex Africa semper aliquid novi as they say over at Vergelegen and the same from the Paardeberg, with bells on. For Eben no longer needs to trek out to obscure West Coast vineyards with romantic names like Skurfberg for his Red Sémillon fix. There is plenty on the Paardeberg and some within walking distance of Orangerie where Eben has refurbished the cellar in a most tasty fashion.
After a neighbourly late Easter Sunday braai with Siebritskloof stalwart Barry Schreiber, postprandially we repaired to his 1ha Sémillon bushvine vineyard planted in 1965 on Kweperfontein within spitting distance of Château Pendock at Lemoenfontein. Barry proudly showed me his Red Sémillon bushvines, still heavy with fruit ignored by the pickers who harvested the rest for Ian Naudé’s wonderful Adoro white blend.
