Taste-what would we do without our tastebuds? Well if you taste wine it's not what you would do without your tastebuds but what would you do without your nose? With 9000 possible smells and only four key tastes, which is more important? Well both off course, you won't be able to taste properly if you have no sense of sweet, salt, bitter or sour. I read in an article on taste the other day that you can't taste saltiness in wine, I would like to disagree with this as I do think that leezy wines have a distinct salty aftertaste especially when slightly warm. One winemaker says he can taste the sea in some wines for me it's more the kind of aftertaste you get from oysters which I would describe as salty. A few good examples are Bouchard Finlayson Sans Barrique which is one of my favourite unwooded Chardonnays or Ken Forrester Petit Chenin and Flagstone Strata Chenin.

Had some really good Grangehurst wines last night at Casalinga restaurant in Muldersdrift. It was a unique experience as all the wines were magnums and from different vintages. My favourite was a Grangehurst Pinotage 1998 with a 8% cabernet content, fabulous flavours, smooth and velvety. My partner's favourite was the Cab/Merlot. Grangehurst was until recently the only winery to have received three five star ratings in the South African Wine Magazine. It's a small boutique winery between Stellenbosch and Somerset West and wines are not released until before having spent up to 20 months in barrel and a few more in the bottle. Current vintage is the 2000. Give it a try.

What is the flavour you most persistently smell in wines?