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Forget about “heartbreak grape.” The real secret of SA Pinot is hair as the leading father-and-son SA Pinot winemakers Peter and Peter-Allan Finlayson (below) confirmed at Anysbos on Saturday night.
Peter and Peter-Allan Finlayson
How cool it was to eat rare pan-fried hake, basil and tomato crushed potatoes, Parmesan velouté, mussel and saffron vinaigrette in the Pierneef à la Motte restaurant last night while listening to the secrets of Spain played on guitar by that George Clooney lookalike, James Grace. For this was no WINE magazine money-making opportunity with bizarre sponsor that pretty much defined the SA tasting scene for the last decade. No siree! This was the first event for Classic Wine magazine and publisher, Dominic Ntsele dropped more bombshells in his witty address than an Apache helicopter piloted by Prince Harry. Here he is being painted by Jacobus Hendrik Pierneef.
The inaugural edition of the Fleur du Cap Top 100 Places to Eat in Cape Town 2011 has blown the lid off the pressure cooker of SA food awards. Receiving his scroll for Top Ten Place to Eat in Cape Town and the Peninsular, the Cape’s first celebrity chef Franck Dangereux, from the Food Barn in Noordhoek, declared himself well pleased that more voices had been added to the Cape’s chorus of restaurant critics, to enthusiastic applause from some of the Cape’s most famous chefs. Here are three of them: Giorgio Nava, Harald Bresselschmidt and Franck.
Giorgio, Harald, Franck and a heavenly halo
So Jancis Robinson does not expect to see a black member of the Cape Winemakers Guild within 20 years. We I do and her name is Ntsiki Biyela and I had dinner with her last night at the Grande Roche in Paarl. The Roche is a venue JR herself dubbed “one of the best billets in the Winelands” after one of her trips to judge SA wine – presumably not the time she heroically “judged” 151 young SA shirazes for the Old Mutual with the worst case of ‘flu ever, doing it all by texture. Amazing!
Ntsiki last night @ the Grande Roche
Nederburg Auctioneer Anthony Barnes had to work hardest to move the Nederburg Private Bin D234 Sauvignon Blanc 2009 at Saturday’s Auction. Which is strange as in terms of quality, IMHO, this Darling-fruited darling was superior to its sister Sauvignon Blanc made from Durbanville fruit that had no problem selling the previous day. An opinion seconded by sommelier Miguel Chan who put the wine in his top three Sauvignons of the Auction.
Saturday's Nederburg Auction bidders
The news that the Sauvignon Blanc Interest Group [SBIG] has secured sponsorship from First National Bank for a continuation of the controversial Sauvigon Blanc Challenge from defunct WINE magazine, confirms that wine marketing abhors a vacuum. But has the market moved on? Consumers buy wine for occasions: a Sunday braai, wedding anniversary, book club and not by varietal. Most punters think that rosé is a cultivar.
This is the seminal idea behind Clare Mack’s revolutionary 100 Women, 100 Wines event that went down at the V&A hotel at the Waterfront yesterday. And rather than pointy headed “professional” pundits from Pinelands, Clare brought ordinary women together from Pretoria, Porterville and Putsonderwater to choose them, courtesy of 1Time Airlines. Ladies were selected by a competition run in Destiny magazine, the most popular competition Destiny has ever run.
100 women choose 100 wines
WINE magazine is going out with a bang. While the final September print edition threatens to become a sentimental sendoff – I was asked if I’d like to revise my final column but declined, preferring to go with the scoop of how Angolan generals are buying up the Douro, big time and if they’d only taught Portuguese at Paul Roos, Stellenbosch farm prices would be flying – the August edition includes a provocative booklet called WineIQ sponsored by Ultra Liqours. Confirming that Mark Norrish is the Rupert Murdoch of the Winelands and his colourful catalogues are the future of local wine reportage. Does that make Carrie Adams, Wendi Deng?
Debra Meiburg is no stranger to SA wine. For starters, she’s distant family of Hannes Myburgh of Meerlust fame, even if her Californian branch of the family obviously came second in the spelling bee. She’s been to SA seven times and even competes in the Cape Argus, although with a dodgy ankle and Klein Constantia now snapped up by two other Argus cyclists, let’s hope she’ll be a competitor for many future vintages as she’s a big fan of SA wine.
Debra and Neil do lunch
My story on the big disappointment of missing BEE brands at the recent Gugulethu Wine Festival quickly rose to top of the pops on the winenews site last week, even overtaking all the vulgar ego-surfing of the Old Mutual Trophy Wine Show. I had more to say on the matter in the Sunday Times yesterday.
Paul Elgin from Paul Cluver Estate
In 1933 Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany about the time grapes were being harvested for a KWV Jerepigo which was rated 98/100 at the Old Mutual Trophy Wine Show earlier this year. Just what incoming KWV chairman Marcel Golding plans to do with these golden oldies is still unclear, but one marketing direction has been trail-blazed by David Guimaraens, winemaker at Port producer Taylor’s, who found a couple of pipes of 1855 tawny last year. A third pipe from the stash was bought and consumed by that Port aficionado Winston Churchill many years ago.
Elisabete Fernandes holding a bottle of history
