Like the rich, the French are different. In what way? Well, going into detail cannot be done before proper broadband comes to South Africa as the reasoning is bound to be expansive.

Wine, for example, is one area in which the French are different from other nations.

Still the greatest wine country on earth. Has been and always will be. Blah.Blah. Agreed.

In the spirit of Bastille Day celebrations, thus, IΓÇÖd like to take a look at five South African winemakers who to my mind have ΓÇô knowingly or otherwise ΓÇô been infected with French genes of vinous brilliance. Doubting Thomases can taste it in their wines.

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LetΓò¼├┤Γö£├ºΓö£├╗s delve into 2012. What are the predictions for this yearΓò¼├┤Γö£├ºΓö£├╗s vinous calendar? Here are four. Readers are invited to add a fifth. The best entry will receive a bottle from WineGoggle’s private cellar. Continue Reading »

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.

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Senior student and budding winemaker Riaan Smit continues his harvest oddyssey.

The 10 would-be winemakers of Class of 2011 at Elsenburg have so far made about 35 000 liters of wine ΓÇô the most wine by any final year B Agric class in many years. We will probably make more than 50 000 liters because we have not started on our Shiraz, Merlot or Cabernet Sauvignon blocks.

In the last couple of years the class was usually 20 students – twice the current size Γò¼├┤Γö£├ºΓö£Γöñ and student winemakers were only assigned 10 or 15 rows of a vineyard block to make wine. This year, entire blocks became the responsibility of individual students or groups of students, with the result that each student is making much more wine, and a greater variety, than students of previous years.

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Two aspiring wine-tasters doing the easy part of the MasterClass.

All palates are created equal, but some are created more equal than others. No matter, with a bit of training and discipline you too can taste wine like an aficionado, using your skill to contribute to sighted and unsighted wine guides, holding court at fancy dinner parties and be able to sweep a recently Wine Judging Academy babe from her feet.

But it takes a bit of hard work, so be warned: honing a palate is not for sissies or persons unwilling to experiment with the things they put in their mouths.

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Roald in the mood for comment.

The South African wine industry is set to follow the example of local citrus producers by employing the services of wild baboons to help identify superior fruit quality and to create new varietals. This follows the recent international media frenzy where reporters descended upon the Western Cape town of Citrusdal to report on the success a major citrus farmer had after the taste-buds of the mountain baboons had assisted him in creating a new sweeter-tasting and all-round improved variety of orange.

According to Faizel van der Vyver, a wine grower from the Western CapeΓÇÖs Breederivier wine region, the assistance of baboons in identifying better grapes for winemaking must not be underestimated. ΓÇ£I let the troops of baboons patrol my Chenin Blanc and Sauvignon Blanc vines, and it is interesting to see which grapes they eat and which they leave behind,ΓÇ¥ says Van der Vyver. ΓÇ£Here in the harvest season they will only select grapes at optimum ripeness, around 25┬░B and disregard bunches that are not yet fit for harvest. Their ability to detect the correct degree of skin or pip greenness is uncanny.ΓÇ¥

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