What I Drank Last Night

It never rains but it pours. Having enjoyed a Kanonkop extravaganza on Wednesday, last night the Pinotage 1997 from this great Stellenbosch property courtesy of my sister-in-law’s significant other. The mid-1990s was a time of experimentation when it came to Pinotage as winemakers who now had international markets again after political transformation gunned for a [...]

Last night, a meeting of our social tasting group, the theme of the evening older Kanonkop Cabernet Sauvignon scrounged from various sources with two ringers thrown in just to keep things interesting. We tasted blind and here’s how I scored the wines using the 20-point system. Kanonkop Pinotage 1993: 19/20 Red fruit and some floral [...]

I’ve always gathered that sweet foods need to be matched by sufficiently sweet wines. If the wine is not sweet enough, it will taste sour and appear to be lacking fruit. What then to match with the late Lannice Snyman’s malva pudding, the recipe for which appears in her book Tortoises & Tumbleweeds – Journey [...]

There’s plenty that’s sexy about the recently released Reserve Pinot Noir 2009 from Darling producer Groote Post: red and black fruit and the varietal’s tantalising perfume on the nose, while the palate is intensely flavoured with fresh acidity and fine tannins (score: 16.5/20). Perhaps most attractive of all however  is that whereas most local Pinot [...]

If the 2010 vintage of Chenin Blanc from Stellenbosch property Oldenburg Vineyards was likeable but workmanlike (see here), the 2011 shows much greater fruit purity, freshness and overall precision. Intense white peach, fresh but not obtrusive acidity and carefully judged oak. Available from the cellar at R118 a bottle, it’s rather primary now and should [...]

If any variety has gained a favourable reputation because of texture rather than flavour, it is Merlot. In the mind of the average punter, it produces wines that are “smooth” and almost nothing seems to convince him or her otherwise. It is curious, to say the least, that while so many South African examples are [...]

Yesterday peri-peri chicken espetada and a bottle or three of Gatão Vinho Verde at Roberto’s.  Situated at 44 Long Street, Cape Town, this is the establishment opened by chef Roberto De Carvalho, previously of The Twelve Apostles and the One & Only. There’s a definite Portuguese bent to the establishment but it’s less greasy than [...]

“Pinot Noir is a white wine grape that only makes red wine under special conditions,” contends Peter Finlayson of Bouchard Finlayson, pointing to its use in Champagne and the fact that only 11% of plantings in Burgundy qualify for Premier Cru or Grand Cru status. Last night a vertical of Finlayson’s Galpin Peak stretching from [...]

Last night a vertical of Raats Family Wines Cabernet Franc from the maiden 2001 through to the not yet released 2010. “You need 10 vintages of more or less consistent quality before you can say you’ve established a brand,” reckons owner and cellarmaster Bruwer Raats. “This tasting is in a way daunting and in another [...]

Jaap-Henk Koelewijn, sommelier at Tokara restaurant in Stellenbosch, is a music nut. His take on the sudden rise to prominence after years of relative obscurity of American rock duo Black Keys? “They’re soft on the ear. Easy. The musical equivalent of Sauvignon Blanc”. Much more to his taste is another American music pair The White [...]