I am sure that for every sensible word written about wine, Public Relation teams issue out 100 silly ones. Luckily conscientious writers shield the broader public from much of this hyperbolic guff, however, some of it does slip through on back labels, and boy, is it a load of tripe.
Never have I drunk so much wine without hearing that singular thudding pop of a cork, a sound as comforting as a mother’s voice, or the gentle breathing of a lover as s/he sleeps against your chest. I did and it made me sad
I remember reading this in the Onion once: “The quality of wine is inversely proportional to the ferocity of the animal on the label.” Sadly for South Africa, we have many animal labels. Producers, it seems, think that they can bottle any crap and then throw on a cutesy label and all is forgiven.
Need a little help? Hosting a wine tasting club isn’t always the easiest thing to do, especially if you don’t have a lot of experience with the theme. Wine Tasting is becoming a little bit of thing lately, so we thought we’d equip you with the knowledge that you’ll need to pull off hosting a wine tasting club succesfully. […]
A few columns back I mentioned the RE:CM 10 year old wine awards, and how some of the wines I tasted during the judging (I was filming not judging) were not very good. I couldn’t mention the best ones, as the results had not yet been made public. I can now talk freely as the awards have been handed out.
Fear not, I will not be ranting here. I will not spend 1000 words frothing at the keyboard about the abysmal, facile, corporate, lackluster, insulting, sell-out winelists that do not deserve the bad laminating they have.
I have been thinking quite a lot about Pinot Noir lately after having written an article on the grape for a local magazine. I feel that I can usefully reconstitute some of those points here in slightly stronger language.
I had a new wine experience this past weekend. I wish this meant tasting a new exotic variety, or an ancient vintage, or even just a good Pinotage. But no, it was far more banal than any one of those, it was a trip to the Wade Bales Society wine sale.
I do not lay awake at night wondering about the permutations of whether Oscar Pistorious shoots with or without prosthetics, I do not toss and turn weighing in my mind the quality of Lindiwe Mazibuko’s State of the Nation Address rebuttal, nor do I consider whether Vernan Philander can bowl better. No friends, I ask myself how can I get more people drinking wine
We LIKE this. A new Facebook online store has been developed encouraging their US users to buy and send gifts with just a click of a button. Remembering birthdays used to be a daunting experience until these guys came along, and now they making something like purchasing wine just as easy.
This week’s column may come across as slightly schizophrenic. I have some thoughts on older wines and a wine recommendation. They are totally unrelated.
Wine judging is a strange endeavor. As weird, I imagine, as the judging at country fairs of jams, tarts, cakes, flower arrangements, and whatever other product of pastoral hobbies are put forward.
When inspiration in wine deserts me, I can always trust in pure anger at stupidity. Unfortunately there is never a lack of that. The stupidity currently on my mind is any talk about a boycott of South African wines as a response to the recent farm worker strikes.
Riesling. What a grape. I wonder how much you’ve had? Probably not enough. I know I haven’t. The wines of the Riesling grape are hard to have too much off. It is another type of wine in South Africa that is on the up, if a bit slower than Riesling lovers would like; but then all things vinous are slow.
The God of wine – Bacchus – called me on New Year’s Day for a talking to atop the rather benign Bottellery Hills. He gave me six commandments to give to you. So listen carefully, young and old.
Terroir. It’s time we had a chat about it. Is it complete marketing hogwash? Is it the holy grail of fine wine making, so, in fact, total hogwash? Is it a real thing that winemakers should strive toward? Wait, hold on Harry, wtf is terroir.
Nederburg has created a novel restaurant for the summer, open from Wednesday to Sunday until the end of April. Called the Red Table, it offers locally-sourced fresh, light bistro-style food in a relaxed and gesellige atmosphere. The menu has been devised to match the farm’s rich and varied range of award-winning wines. What makes it […]
Every week @realtimewine publishes their top 10 trending wines for the week. I read last week’s list and responded, a little cheekily, with this tweet. Real Time Wine challenged me to put together a better list. I agreed. It’s like shooting fish in a barrel to be honest. Since I have entered the wine […]
You can make big cash from a property like this. Apart from the prestige of having your own wine farm, this chunk of earth sports 10 luxury suites, conference facilities, wedding venue etc. You’ll be rolling in it… Check out these killer pics..
What makes good wine good? A devious little question. A question that sits around a corner with its foot held out hoping you trip. It’s a question however, that I am bound to try and answer.
Here’s a wine column in two parts. First a response to nagging complaint against people like myself, that we should be quiet about the huge amounts of people drinking truly atrocious wines, because, you know, so what. To balance it out, I will suggest some great bargain wines to drink as well.
Over the past week we’ve seen violent protests by farmworkers demanding higher wages and better working conditions. Farmworkers in the De Doorns and other Western Cape areas went on strike in demand of a R150 daily wage. In a bid to show their support, the ANC in the Eastern Cape called for the complete boycott of South African wines yesterday.
If you haven’t noticed, it’s full-blown awards season in the wine industry. You can shake the proverbial stick and more than likely poke a winning winemaker’s eye out.
The 2013 Platter guide has been released and the five star wines have been revealed. Are the five star wines that good? Is the Platter guide the vinous present to buy this Christmas? Harry Haddon finds out.
I have made jokes about Spier in the past. It’s not hard. They have cheetahs and more tourists than you can shake a stick at. The jokes have never been that fair. So I thought I should visit again, to recalibrate my idea of Spier.
Given the extensive history between 2oceansvibe and our methode cap classique of choice, Pierre Jourdan (Seth’s parents planted some of the trees on the farm!), we found this story about the coat of arms at Haute Cabrière of the German von Arnim family very interesting. We think you will enjoy it too.
I have mentioned in one or more of these columns that I am not exactly a fan of wine competitions. In this column I report back on the challenges I faced when helping judge in a recent local competition.
Every now and then I get sent some wine. I never tire of this. Even if the wine is insipid, badly labeled, and I have to get my panga out of storage to hack through the multi-layered coating of bubble wrap I am happy. I love free shit. I don’t care that I will probably chuck it away soon after opening; it’s the pure and simple joy of opening something that you know you didn’t pay for but is yours. This feeling lasts but a fleeting moment, but oh, it is sweet.
“Does a man have only one life? Yes. One wife? Occasionally. One wine? Preposterous.” That’s how Paso Robles’s Wine Man begins his argument promoting the enjoyment of wine in all its varieties, kicking off what is probably the best ad for wine I’ve ever seen.
Is South African Chenin any good? According to two international writers it is, and it isn’t. Frustratingly for local producers, mixed messages are being sent out. Locally we have been all “Yeah SA Chenin is the dog’s bollocks!” and then given a full-on smack-down by international writers: “Steady on there Saffas, your wines are definitely […]