Feb 20 2012
Archive for the 'Reviews and Views' Category
Jul 31 2011
Spend it Wisely, or Don’t Spend at All
I must admit, this was one occasion where an advertising salesperson trying to sell adspace actually sounded interesting. “The thing with you wine people,” the lady from Die Burger’s sales-office said in a voice that could launch nuclear submarines, “is that you want everything for fuck-all.” Continue Reading »
Jul 24 2011
KWV Soap Opera Continues
When the soap operas start getting a tad boring on the telly, one can always tap into developments at the KWV. Once an icon of the South African wine industry, the company’s brand has been wrecked by a recent series of boardroom squabbles and shareholder posturing. The latest turn of events saw CEO Thys Loubser abruptly cleaning his desk and leaving office last Friday afternoon. Continue Reading »
Jul 17 2011
Love and Power in Alentejo
A great trio from Portugal.
We kissed the North goodbye, heading south from Oporto with the taste of old Port wine, Vinho Verde and braised goat in our mouths and the pungent salty aroma of the Douro in our hair. The road was long. But it was straight, and it was fast – “we spent too much money on roads, that’s why the country is financially tortured”, a businessman had told me in a wine bar down Gaia way.
Jul 11 2011
Sardine Run-Out, Portuguese Style
Sardines, not chestnuts......
The Portuguese waiter looked at us, nervously. “Sorry but we have run out of sardines,” he said in an accent that confirmed his three-year stint working in North London. We sat back and looked at the table. It was strewn with plates, chunks of bread and half-drunk wine glasses. Piles of sardine bones, stripped of their oily cream-coloured flesh, shimmered in the early afternoon sunlight streaming through the window.
We wanted more.
Jun 19 2011
Italian Nights, Italian Days
When in doubt, say Italian. This is Peter de Wet from DeWetshof’s advice to one faced with the challenge of identifying an unknown international wine. And with so many bloody wines coming out of the Boot, it’s sage and practical counsel.
But it’s funny how in one week Italy can make a turn in one’s vinous consciousness all of three times.
Apr 06 2011
Sucking my Raw Nerve with Etienne Bonthuys
It began with an oyster.........
Strange as it may sound, there was a time in South Africa when chefs were, well, just chefs. Nameless, faceless men and women who gallantly slaved away in restaurant and hotel kitchens, feeding patrons to whom only the content of the plate mattered. The Châteaubriand (for two, of course) and Crayfish Thermidor could have been cooked by Hannibal Lecter or Marilyn Monroe, nobody would give a chicken liver.
A dining venue was judged on the food and the ambience and the mood created by the fulfilled feeling of being fed by others.
Mar 29 2011
From the Outside Looking In
As a partner to the South African wine industry, part of my responsibility entails immersing myself in this country’s unique, colourful and vibrant wine culture. This, of course, includes getting close to as many South African wines as possible by, well, tasting them. As they say in the classics: it’s a tough job, but someone has to do it.
Obviously I keep a cellar of various local wines to entertain – especially when friends and family from my home country of Austria are in the vicinity.
Mar 26 2011
King of the South Hill
If God was a wine lover, the Grabouw-Elgin area would be his kind of place. In a country blessed with arguably the most splendid wine-land scenery anywhere on earth, this region of valleys, mountains, rocks, orchards and lakes must count among South Africa’s finest. It is also producing some pants-wetting gorgeous wines, with Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Sauvignon Blanc and Riesling having thrust Elgin into the fore.
Oak Valley also produces a passable Bordeaux-blend, and Shannon has caused a few rattling Zimmerframes and pacer-recharging with its bulky Merlot. And then there are the brisk, refined bubblies produced by the late Ross Gower, wines whose legacy is fortunately still with us.
Mar 23 2011
Made to Feel Like a Butcher’s Pick
Meat is meat and a man must eat.
PL Kopp, a WineGoggle correspondent, visits the Butcher’s Shop in Sandton. Apparently for the last time.
There was a time when Sandton, Johannesburg, and the world was a better place. I remember those balmy Highveld evenings, strolling through The Square enjoying the lights and the cosmopolitan crowd and the fact that here, at least, was one place in this ghastly city where I could walk around after dark without getting a sharpened bicycle spoke in my neck before briskly being robbed.