What I Drank Last Night

Just back from a two-day trip to the Klein Karoo to taste wines of the region for Platter’s 2012. I traveled with Greg de Bruyn CWM, James Pietersen, beverage manager for Belthazar and Balducci’s restaurants at the V&A Waterfront, Cape Town and Cathy van Zyl MW. We were based at Joubert-Tradauw Private Cellar outside Barrydale [...]

A tasting of ten examples of Viognier, the line-up including wines that have come to the fore in one context or another as among the best in category. I reviewed the wines with James Pietersen, regular taster for Platter’s and beverage manager for Belthatzar and Balducci’s restaurants at the V&A Waterfront, Cape Town. Using Riedel [...]

“Stick this into a Pinot Noir line-up and nobody will be able to tell the difference,” said Laibach winemaker Francois van Zyl giving me a bottle of Theo Minges Dornfelder Trocken Pfalz 2001 picked up on one of his regular international excursions. I served it blind to James Pietersen, regular taster for Platter’s, and he [...]

After completing a review of 131 local white blends on behalf of WINE magazine yesterday, off to Magica Roma in Pinelands for lunch with fellow panellists James Pietersen, beverage manager for Balducci’s and Belthazar restaurants at the V&A Waterfront and Thys Louw of family farm Diemersdal in Durbanville. To eat, beef carpaccio followed by spaghetti [...]

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. [...]

It’s indicative of how gracious my wife Jane is that she let me go off to a Pinotage tasting followed by a (long) lunch this past Women’s Day. The venue was Belthazar restaurant at the V&A Waterfront and also involved were godfather of the variety Beyers Truter of Beyerskloof, as well as James Pietersen and [...]

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 [...]

Judging for the 2010 Amorim Cork Cap Classique Challenge to be reported on in the October issue of WINE magazine was completed yesterday. This year’s competition attracted 78 submissions compared to 70 in 2009. For the first time in the competition’s nine-year history, the panel featured two international judges, namely Hervé Dantan, Chef de Cave of [...]

With the 2010 WINE magazine Shiraz Challenge set to take place next week, panel member James Pietersen and I decided to do a calibration exercise. We also invited Rianie Strydom, winemaker responsible for the Dombeya and Haskell labels, who agreed to include some of her pretty smart Shiraz that she has made recently. We tasted [...]