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Playwright Samuel Beckett told art collector Peggy Guggenheim that “making love without being in love was like taking coffee without brandy.” Of course if Sam had been Italian instead of Irish, it would have been grappa he’d have been putting in his coffee and he’d have called it caffé corretto. When grappa is drunk straight as I digestive, it should be served chilled – in rural Italy it is typically stored ready poured in large glass tumblers in the fridge. For a corretto, the grappa needs to be added at room temperature to avoid cooling the coffee. Of course a chilled grappa may be taken after coffee, in which case it is called ammazza caffé – literally coffee-killer. Read More…
Lauren Alesha Masheka Tanesha Felicia Jane Cooper is the most famous creation of UK comedienne Catherine Tate and no relation to Marilyn Cooper, principal of the Cape Wine Academy. A shouty, argumentative teenager, her catch phrase “am I bovvered?” applies to some SA wine producers receiving e-mails allocating them tasters for Platter 2010 along with free Viagra and penis enlargement specials. Being allocated a Bother Boffin from the Grape Communal Blog and being bovvered for Platter 2010 is like an episode of the Catherine Tate show – hilarious.
NOT Lauren Cooper (see comment)
The real Lauren Cooper
Today’s Sunday Times carries the latest skirmish in an ongoing Wine War between champions of assessment through blind tastings versus sighted assessments by non-independent tasters à la Platter. The latest flare-up was in response to a libelous attack by a pissant associate editor of the guide in the current edition of Noseweek. In addition to legal remedies, I thought presenting the facts to the SA wine drinking public would be useful. To this end I penned my opening position and suggested to the Sunday Times Travel & Food editor that the guide’s position be polled. Herewith a rebuttal of some points made by Platter’s editor.
So there you have it, the gurus are back in Gauteng: 4000Km traveled, 75 wineries visited, 90 producers covered, over 600 wines sampled. The bugs have been scraped off the windscreen. The chip packets and crumpled Coke cans thrown into the trash. Bogies mobile carwash has been booked and copious amounts of ProHep have been swallowed.
While the GVG does his accounts and the Vineyard Connection does the consolidation of a week’s worth of orders – 240 dozen – all that remains is to suggest four six packs of wine for those prepared to venture to the wrong side of the mountain, to put flavor before fashion and economy above ego. Read More…
The Platter wine guide is a bit like Bill Clinton: a cheerful face that has been around for ages but not someone you’d consider hiring as a babysitter. On the very day the Platter Pundits assembled for their annual game of Five Star Russian Roulette, the Times runs a story Wine makers sour over stars. Platter publisher, avuncular Andrew McDowell, attempts to defend the indefensible with the comment “blind tasting is essential for competitions, but the Platter guide is exactly that, a guide — not a competition.” Read More…
Sour Grapes, my amateur exposé of SA wine, is at the printers and Tafelberg tell me it will be out in October. In the meantime, I’m hard at work on a sequel with a working title Pendock Gets the Pip: seeded players and other wine scams with no shortage of subject material.
Sources tell me that Wine & Spirit magazine are not best pleased with the claim first aired by Business Day pundit Michael Fridjhon in that organ (and subsequently carried on the Grape website that specializes in recycled stories) that Wine (UK) magazine “folded.” Read More…
Tasting Cheval Blanc is like waiting for a #1 bus on Oxford Road: nothing for ages and then along come two right behind each other. On Thursday, dinner at Platine in the Cape Town City Bowl with Dominic Hébrard who’s dad used to make the stuff until 2000 when Pierre Lurton took over, including the mythical 1947 that some rate as the best red wine ever made.
Followed by a vertical tasting from 2001 to 2005 on Saturday. At R2500 a ticket, a pricey affair but a reasonable one as the last vintage now changes hands for R15 000 a bottle. The vertical Chevals were one half of a celebrity death match against SA Cabernet Franc fanatic Bruwer Raats. Organized by the dapper Roland Peens from the Wine Cellar, the fight went down at Jonathan Steyn’s Belthazar restaurant on the Waterfront. The prawns were succulent, the steaks great and the result a close one. The horse won on points, but a commendable performance from the local boy for all that, who would certainly have triumphed if price was a handicap, as is usually the case. Read More…
Luanda and Lagos rather than London and Las Vegas is the new export message for SA wine. This in a wine survey for the Financial Mail, echoing my column last week on Angola as the fastest growing export destination for SA wine. Read More…
