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That the top end of SA wine finally lost its patience with WOSA, the controversial generic marketing body for SA wine, was confirmed by the establishment of Piwosa – Premium independent wineries of SA - earlier this year. This was shortly after lame-duck WOSA CEO Su Birch started singing the praises of bulk wine exports, one of the most hard to understand positions of a marketer often at odds with producers and common sense.
The pippyjollers of Piwosa have not let the kikuyu grow under their feet and have taken the fight to the Gallic Goliath. For R850, you can see if you can tell the difference between Grand Cru Classé Bordeaux and SA Cabernet in London. The winner will get a free dinner for two at Quo Vadis in Soho. Platter pundits, who sadly need to see the label to make up their minds, are obviously excluded.
So now the Halloween cat is well and truly out of the bag after the Platter Guide released their annual list of 62 five ★ wines last night at the Vineyard Hotel. The ★★★★★ wines come from a shortlist nominated sighted by the tasters. Aníbal Coutinho and I tasted over 2000 wines blind in their home appellations and came up with a list of 147 ♥♥♥♥♥ wines. Ten differences between the Platter planetarium and our five heart heroes from Neil Pendock’s Winelands Guide 2013 listed here.
A Swartland heart at Bar Bar Black Sheep
Last week was Chardonnay Week when Christian Eedes unveiled his Top Ten Chardonnays at French Toast in Bree Street. After a decent interval, I thought I’d show mine, distilled from a couple of hundred tasted blind with Anibal Coutinho (below, looking pensive in Rawsonville) over the past couple of months. Alas, no sponsorship from banksters or insurance salesmen and we also didn’t charge any entrance fee. All ten wines scored ♥♥♥♥♥ and are listed alphabetically. They are just a handful of wines presented in Neil Pendock’s Winelands Guide 2013 which will be launched next month.
All wines are terroir wines made from grapes grown in a particular appellation which is where they were tasted. Tastings were organized by the respective wine routes so any auditing queries should be addressed to them. There is a fair amount of similarity between our two lists – far more than in the case of the controversial FNB Sauvignon Blanc selection, which raises plenty of interesting issues around terroir and cultivars.
Was Glen Carlou screening WAR: Women Art Revolution at the Labia this evening, the first feminist wine intervention in SA? Certainly the organizers chose a most appropriately named venue and being opposite the Michaelis School of Fine Art was also a happy happenstance, even if the building looks like a reformatory in Luxembourg. Scheduling it on the same day the New York Times runs a major review of a solo exhibition by Cindy Sherman at the Museum of Modern Art, calling her “one of the most important artists of her era” was positively Jungian in its synchronicity.
Glen Carlou marketing maven Georgie Prout
Do you need a license to make love? A diploma to become a dad? A certificate to call yourself a chef? Authority to become an artist? So why is the world of wine so obsessed with “qualifications?” Heck many of the Cape’s best winemakers like Arco Laarman (Glen Carlou) and Johan Kruger (Sterhuis) are self-taught and exactly what vinous qualifications do commentators like John Platter and Michael Fridjhon have?
Yet the battle for the big bucks of wine learners has been joined. In the red corner, former wine bar proprietor turned vinous wordsmith Cathy Marston is offering WSET courses which she tweets are the only qualifications with international recognition. In the white corner, the Cape Wine Academy offers various diplomas with the Cape Wine Master ticket, top of the pops.
Artist and winelover Luan Nel and CWA Principal Marilyn Cooper at the 2011 Soweto Wine Festival
Had a chance to taste the 2011 Glen Carlou unwooded Chardonnay recently and was blown away by its concentration and focus. Which must come from fermentation in one of Mr. Nomblot’s famous concrete eggs, shown below in February, with Lavender and Chris Patten and winemaker Arco Laarman. I always thought that the brand name Glen Carlou came from the Scottish demeanor and windswept (h)air of founder Walter Finlayson, until I was told it was the first three letters of the names of the daughters of the owner Walter bought the farm from back in 1980: Len, Car and Lou. A bit like Tokara, then.
Lavender, Chris and Arco
Anotherdamnedfoodblog has Mother City foodistas in a frenzy as it slays and braiis a few sacred cows around town. Speculation as to its author is a trending topic on twitter and my pesos are on the man with the smallest ears in the business, DC. Of course the blog name is all wrong. It should be anotherfuckingfoodblog as it has more fucks than Gordon Ramsay has deep-fried Mars bars. Winegoggle should be hired as Bacchanalian columnist on the texture of the recent hilarious KY-scented scoop, a glory hole in one.
Another clue is anotherdamned &Union photo, a dining destination that defies keyboards with its upside down N, a sexy Soviet-era design element. A bit like the upside down i of Unik restaurant in Buenos Aires, punctuation that goes down well with all those upside down !s, beloved of Spanish speakers. It was upside down !s all round last night for Unik’s carpaccio of wagu beef with salt and parmesan shavings and a hint of black olive paste. Genetic Japanese material in an Argentinian cow given a Latin flair. At $65 (that’s less than US$16, confusing as the symbol for peso is $) Alan Pick should switch from Australia to Argentina for his wagu supplies for his Butcher’s Shop & Grill.
Us in Unik last night
Well the 100 ladies have spoken and here are 100 wines they chose for ten occasions. A fascinating mixture of big brands and boutique labels – a people’s Platter, if you will.
The news that the owner of Glen Carlou, Donald Hess, sold a Francis Bacon portrait for £18 million at Christie’s last night confirms that fine wine and fine art play in different leagues. Donald only collects artists with whom he has a personal relationship and in the case of Francis, Donald remembers him as ‘an extraordinary man. He was an unhappy homosexual and through that, started to drink. If you knew his background, you’d think him dumb and brutal. But he was the opposite – very well read, very accurate and very interesting when he wasn’t smashed. He was very opinionated and could also be very rude. He loved my first wife, Joanna, and we’d often meet at the Connaught Bar in the art heart of London and he’d say, “Joanna, come and sit right next to me”.’
Donald sells a Bacon
I took Chris Patten, front runner for BBC chairman, around the winelands last month and wrote about it in the Sunday Times.
Razvan Macici and Chris Patten
