What I Drank Last Night

This year’s white blends tasting to be reported on in the November issue of WINE magazine has attracted 131 submissions compared to 95 in 2009. The panel is Carrie Adams of Johannesburg retailer Norman Goodfellows, Diemersdal winemaker Thys Louw, James Pietersen, beverage manager for Balducci’s and Belthazar restaurants, Cape Wine Master Meryl Weaver  and me. [...]

This year’s Chardonnay tasting to be reported on in the November issue of WINE magazine has attracted 173 examples (28 unwooded and 145 wooded) submissions compared to 150 (19 unwooded and 131 wooded) in 2009. The panel is Carrie Adams of Johannesburg retailer Norman Goodfellows, wine writer Angela Lloyd, Woolworths wine selector Allan Mullins, JD Pretorius, [...]

Tasting for WINE magazine’s 2010 Best Value Wine Guide  began this week, entries for possible inclusion amounting to 969 compared to 1 093 in 2009. Judges include Christine Rudman CWM in the capacity of floating chair, Carrie Adams of Johannesburg retailer Norman Goodfellows, Ginette de Fleuriot of Wineworx, Gawie Marx, general manager of the Grande [...]

For a pretty wide spread of wine scores, check out how the Steenberg Shiraz 2008 did in this year’s Global Trader Shiraz Challenge convened by WINE magazine: I gave it 14 on the 20-point scale, Carrie Adams of Johannesburg wine retailer Norman Goodfellows 14.5, James Pietersen, beverage manager for Cape Town restaurants Balducci’s and Belthazar [...]

Wine writer Neil Pendock has once again posed some provocative questions concerning the state of the South African wine criticism  in two of his recent columns (see “Are SA wines really getting better?” and “Is wine appreciation generationally dependent?”). Pendock seems to be advancing a postmodernist perspective by rejecting the notion of progress (specifically he [...]