Champagne in any manner or form-It might be my affinity towards Pinot Noir and Chardonnay which makes me love Champagne as well. I had slush puppy Moet Rose last night. And no, it wasn't intentional and you might say, damn why ruin a good champagne that way? And I will answer and say:" it was fab and refreshing and certainly gives a new edge to a champagne cocktail if you should feel like spicing up the Kir" (for those who don't know- a champagne cocktail is, normally, white Champagne, cassis and a marachino cherry, yes as simple as that!). No ice was added, it was just left in the freezer too long by hubby, who can't handle warm champers.

Talking about Champagne though, it's that time of the year again when it's the drink of choice. And also the time of the year when people ask for Champagne and they mean sparkling wine (Champagne being from Champagne region France, although I don't think the US has these regulations). In South Africa I have great pleasure in taking them to our French Champagne section and watching the look of astonishment on their faces as they are confronted by prices which are ten times more than the cheap carbonated stuff, flogged by the hundreds off thousands by JC Le Roux. Although in all fairness, JC has tried to redeem themselves by making Scintilla(spelling?) and Desiderius, although I personally find Scintilla far better than the more pricey Desiderius and besides the Louis Roederer Crystal rip-off packaging on Desidirius did not 'inderius' them to me either.

Now there is a magnificent Champagne, Louis Roederer Crystal, if you've never had it, you haven't had the best, but good hunting as it's very scarce in SA. I would try Norman Goodfellows after trying everyone else, as they also charge premium for the availability! Around R1000 more than the rest per bottle, this was the case last year in any event, not sure what the situation is now with stocks. Contact Makro and find out from Jacqui at the Woodmead branch.

For those of you you lucky enough to live in the USA or the UK, enjoy and save me a bottle!

Other local stuff worth trying is Graham Beck and Pierre Jordan, although I have personally always found Pierre Jordan, from Cabriere Estate, too dry with not much flavour-and that goes for their whole range. I want all sparkling wine, not vintage that is, to have the fruitiness and complexity of a Veuve Cliquot Yellow Label.

If you want to go foreign, try Freixenet-lovely and biscuity-from Spain, in the well known black bottle, and try some of the English ones, had a very good one from Denbies the other day,Greenfields-around 20 pounds a bottle., very light and elegant with a good acidity.

I am not familiar with any Californian Sparkling Wines , as they are not freely available in South Africa, but would love to hear your thoughts on them, so please forward me your tasting notes. I am still happy to swop a case of South African Wine with a case of USA wine if anyone would like to take me up on my offer.

Other than that I am looking forward to some holiday drinking with my family. Good wine with fine people. Hope you have the same experience.

Have a bubbly few weeks till Christmas.

Why do we drink wine? I don't like being drunk. I like being relaxed but not drunk. Two small children and a big car to drive home, not worth it! But I looove wine. I love the smell of wine, the taste of elegance and finesse in good reds and the velvety smoothness of a well made Rioja, Pinot Noir or a superior blend, like the CWG Auction Shiraz from Bredell. (Making myself thirsty here :-)

So how do you drink great wine and not get drunk. You stay home! Or you choose quality over quantity and savor every sip. And this is exactly where my problem lies with South African wine drinkers in general. They want to guzzle volume and compromise on quality. And probably most other wine drinkers the world over.

There is nothing better than savouring a good sip of wine. Smelling the wine, ooooh nothing better than a good nose on wine-Pinot Noir comes to mind! Your mouth watering from the very first sip. The flavour lingering in your mouth, and your tastebuds tingling. And your stomach crying out for good food! Most amazing is how a good wine improves with every sip and improves ten fold when matched with the right food.

I would rather have a beer than drink bad wine, and have done so often at weddings or functions with shocking wine options.

So, moral of the story, remain sober, drink slowly and drink well made wine.

Why do u drink wine?

Pinot Noir-Apparently this is the grape variety most commonly featured in blogs. No wonder, who does not want to wax lyrical about Pinot Noir? Ok some of you might prefer the more robust flavours of Syrah or the more tannic structures of Cabernet, but for me their is only one love. I have come to realize that I love to taste good wine, like we all do but alas, I prefer to drink Pinot Noir. Even bad Pinot is better than most other wines. I recently had a bottle of Chamonix Pinot Noir 2002, although not bad and very drinkable , it had a little too much ripe fruit which crippled the elegance but otherwise a fine drink (R54 at Bootleggers Fourways). I also bought a bottle of Fryers Cove Pinot Noir but have as yet not had a chance to sample it. This is from the new area, Bamboes Bay, and it would make an interesting addition to an appellation tasting of SA Pinot Noir wines. As far as I know they are in a cooler climate similar to those of Bouchard Finlayson and Hamilton Russell. The Fryers Cove is very well priced, only R71 retail.

Talking about Bouchard Finlayson, the 2004 vintage is to die for. Recently went to a tasting at a restaurant in Sandton and loved it! I have subsequently ordered some for home consumption and yum! It was also interesting to note that if you cannot finish the bottle (or for that matter the second bottle) the same night, it keeps very well and improved dramatically on the second night and was still good on the third night (sorry, slow drinker, small children and all!). Probably due to the excellent vinification methods used and the use of oak that preserves the wine well even once opened.

Well, all I can say, if you haven't yet had Pinot Noir, buy some now! It's not for everyone but if you have a keen sense of smell, you will never forget the delicate flavours of a good bottle of Pinot.

Happy drinking!

PS If you haven't watched the movie Sideways yet, rent the DVD and get a bottle of Pinot!

Wine Mark Ups in restaurants-I came across an article in www.jancisrobinson.com were wines in restaurants were debated and their profitability discussed. It was stated that the areas discussed (UK) used mark ups of 60%-70% and food costs at 22%-25%. I find it disgusting that South African restaurants can have mark ups of 150% to 250% and get away with it. If consumers stand together and refuse to pay exorbitant prices for wine that was not even stored properly or matured at the restaurant's expense, with a few exceptions, like Browns and The Butcher Shop and grill, than what right do they have to make more money than the wine farm itself? and most of the time the wine lists are atrocious with so few good wines available and only wines from one or two suppliers with loads of cheapies selling at premium prices.

Guys, you need to take your own wine! If we refuse to buy high priced wines and all take good quality wine with us we will still save money. If your retail price for a bottle of Chardonnay is R100, hypothetically, then the restaurant price will be R250 (more or less as the restaurant will not be paying retail prices) so if you take that bottle of wine with you and pay R50 corkage, you still save R100, the price of the second bottle!!

I always like to suggest to retail customers that they have a so called "restaurant rack" in their cellar were they keep the wines from R100 upwards and take these wines with them when they dine out. You will off course have your own benchmark and can take something a little cheaper but remember that if you take a cheapie you will be saving far less and have to drink bad wine with good food (maybe have a separate set of wines for your franchise sojourns)

So we hope to see you shopping up a storm and buying nice wines to dine with.

Maud

The public's ignorance-I had two very amusing comments this weekend regarding wine and thought i would share it with you. In a country like South Africa were our rugby players are gods, one such a former World-Cup-winning player is Kobus Wiese. Over the weekend while consulting for a wine store in Fourways, a lady came in and asked for Weisser Riesling. I then showed her our local selection and she chose the Hartenberg which she then told was owned/made by Kobus WIESE. I said "No 'mam this is not so, I know the winemaker and the owner and it's not Kobus Wiese, to no avail, she left with a bottle of WIESE-Riesling and I'm sure the winemaker will be happy he made a sale. Hopefully she will like the wine and continue buying it when she one day realizes her mistake, if ever!

Another amusing incident was in the local newspaper in the area were i live where I have to admit wine knowledge is very sparse. The article went along the lines of two people who got very sick after they discovered "glass" in their wine. I personally thought that the volume of wine caused the vomiting not the glass but to any event the winefarm answered the query by stating that when wine goes through temperature fluctuations crystals can be formed in the wine. They were of course talking about tartrates which are mostly found in white wines that have been over chilled and on the corks of red wines especially ones that have matured in the bottle. So no, I doubt if the two sick gentlemen were sick from drinking wine and the article ends off with the negative connotation that what happens if others drink wine and get glass in their wine! As if we don't already have a shrinking per capita consumption of wine!!

As I said at dinner on Sunday, it is our responsibility as wine lovers to educate this world on wine and that includes your ignorant friends.

Happy teaching.

Maud

The public's ignorance-I had two very amusing comments this weekend regarding wine and thought i would share it with you. In a country like South Africa were our rugby players are gods, one such a former World-Cup-winning player is Cobus Wiese. Over the weekend while consulting for a wine store in Fourways, a lady came in and asked for Weisser Riesling. I then showed her our local slection and she chose the Hartenberg which she then told was owned/made by Kobus WIESE. I said "No 'mam this is not so, I know the winemaker and the owner and it's not Kobus Wiesse, to no avail, she left with a bottle of WIESE-Riesling and I'm sure the winemaker will be happy he made a sale. Hopefully she will like the wine and continue buying it when she one day realizes her mistake, if ever!

Another amuzing incident was in the local newspaper in the area were i live where I have to admit wine knowledge is very sparce. The article went along the lines of two people who got very sick after they discovered "glass" in their wine. I personally thought that the volume of wine caused the vomiting not the glass but to any event the winefarm answered the query by stating that when wine goes through temperature flactuations christals can be formed in the wine. They were of course talking about tartrates which are mostly found in white wines that have been overchilled and on the corks of red wines especially ones that have matured in the bottle. So no, I doubt if the two sick gentlemen were sick from drinking wine and the article ends off with the negative connotation that what happens if others drink wine and get glass in their wine! As if we don't already have a shrinking per capita consumption of wine!!

As I said at dinner on Sunday, it is our responsibility as wine lovers to educate this world on wine and that includes your ignorant friends.

Happy teaching.

Maud

WINE FAULTS-Brettanomyces - Two of the most common faults in wine besides oxidation and still not recognised by most consumers. The damage this does to the image of a wine is tremedous as a buyer who is unfamiliar with a corked wine will just never buy that wine again. Brett on the other hand can have the effect of enhancing the nose of the wine in certain instances by adding dimension to certain flavours but in the long run kills the nose and complexity of the wine. A Brett nose can be described as 'barnyard, leather, clove and strong spice to medicinal and animal' (From Purely Pinot Noir). To tell you the honest truth it still confuses the hell out of me! As the above are smells that I actually like in wine but they can luckily also be caused by lactic acid bacteria and acetic acid bacteria. It is found especially in Shiraz and Bordeaux blends. Cellar hygiene is essential to prevent Brett and strangely enough it is more common on new barrels. So next time you see them scrubbing barrels, jump in and help!
Cork taint-Now cork taint on the other hand is foul, no matter how you look at it, it just does not improve with age or enhances any phenols (flavour compounds). 10% Of the recent Trophy hopefuls at the Trophy Wine Show were found to be tainted by TCA (cork taint) and Michael Fridjion rightly asks how South Africa remains so committed to an archiac, inadequate and unreliable closure (Grape.co.za see link)
Another reason SA wines are stuck in the dark ages are due to the monopoly that Consol has on the supply and distribution of bottles. Ken Forrester (big Chenin Blanc producer) was apparently forced to export in bulk and bottle in Europe were Stelvin (screw-cap) closures are far cheaper due to the fact that no bottles were available in SA by Consol and that it was an urgent order for a UK retailer that only accepts wines under Stelvin closures. Maybe if more SA wine drinkers start returning their corked and oxidized wines retailers in SA will also start demanding Stelvin.
Oxidation is something that does not ruin the wine completely for most people but I find it unpleasant and get irritated thinking that another possibly brilliant wine was ruined by cork combined with poor storage. It just kills the nose and general complexity of the wine for me. It essentially is how wine under cork mature as oppose to a slow anaerobic process under Stelvin but has a negative influence if it happens too quickly.

So don't be scared, buy Stelvin and get a fresh well preserved wine, especially if you're travelling. Don't want to get to the other side of the world with a corked wine!

See ya.

Riesling and Rose-In South Africa there is still much confusion under the public as to what these really are. What I mean by this, is that we used Riesling as a vehicle for cheap sweet wines for many years and Riesling is still seen as this. Not the good quality Rieslings from Alsace and Germany but rather flabby excuses for wine. This has been the same situation with Rose. Luckily Rose, like Chenin Blanc, is trying to improve their image. This can be attributed mostly to the red wine glut of recent years which has seen winefamers scrambling to find outlets for leftover red wine grapes. Now there are a few good quality rose's around, of particular note is the Mulderbosch Cabernet Rose which is just delicious and easy to drink. If you want something ice cold for summer, try Beyerskloof Pinotage Rose, although not of outstanding quality it is a great thirst quencher. Boschendal Blanc De Noir has been around for as long as I can remember and is certainly not a four star wine but worth tasting to see what the populace in SA are so mad about, mostly expatriate Germans I have to confess from retail experience and also found on almost all wine lists.
So what am I trying to say? Try a good dry Rose with your next purchase, especially if whites give you sinus and it's too hot for red and do try some good Rhine Riesling or if you want to splash out on some Alsace, as this is almost the only international Riesling you will find worth drinking in South Africa, Hugel is freely available at most premium wine stores. Their are some very good Noble Late Harvest(dessert wine) made from Riesling so go shop around and experiment. Exellent with camembert cheese.
I've made myself thirsty now!! Happy tasting.

Riesling and Rose-In South Africa there is still much confusion under the public as to what these really are. What I mean by this, is that we used Riesling as a vehicle for cheap sweet wines for many years and Riesling is still seen as this. Not the good quality Rieslings from Alsace and Germany but rather flabby excuses for wine. This has been the same situation with Rose. Luckily Rose, like Chenin Blanc, is trying to improve their image. This can be attributed mostly to the red wine glut of recent years which has seen winefamers scrambling to find outlets for leftover red wine grapes. Now there are a few good quality rose's around, of particular note is the Mulderbosch Cabernet Rose which is just delicious and easy to drink. If you want something ice cold for summer, try Beyerskloof Pinotage Rose, although not of outstanding quality it is a great thirst quencher. Boschendal Blanc De Noir has been around for as long as I can remember and is certainly not a four star wine but worth tasting to see what the populace in SA are so mad about, mostly expatriate Germans I have to confess from retail experience and also found on almost all wine lists.
So what am I trying to say? Try a good dry Rose with your next purchase, especially if whites give you sinus and it's too hot for red and do try some good Rhine Riesling or if you want to splash out on some Alsace, as this is almost the only international Riesling you will find worth drinking in South Africa, Hugel is freely available at most premium wine stores. Their are some very good Noble Late Harvest(dessert wine) made from Riesling so go shop around and experiment. Exellent with camembert cheese.
I've made myself thirsty now!! Happy tasting.

Champagne-Nectar of the Gods or just good marketing? Probably a little bit of both. I'm doing a Bubbly tasting this weekend and looking forward to it BIG TIME as I'm a great lover of Champagne and Sparkling wine for that matter but then of course it has to be made according to THE METHOD. Secondary Fermentation, disgorgement and of course the magic yeast cells in the bottle to start of with and let's not forget the remuage, that age old French Tradition of turning the bottles until they virtually stand upright to move the yeast cells to the neck of the bottle, now replaced by mechanical cages in the New World. http://www.champagne.fr/en_fini_video.html A video of this process is available on this link. The official Champagne website.

I don't think that a Method Cap Classique as they are called here in South Africa could ever quite have the complexity of a real French one unless they are aged and meticulously made with of course the right grapes. A lot of Sparkling wines are not always made from Chardonnay, Pinot meaner and Pinot Noir. I have had some marvelous examples from Vouvray made from Chenin with a touch of sugar for the not so dry palates.
South Africa has some good examples in the form of Graham Beck, Jacques Bruere and Simonsig- all former Cap Classique Champions. If you find yourself in Franschoek though the farm not to be missed is Haute Cabriere with some 5 different Cap Classiques and a traditional subrage done at every cellar tour.

As I always say, be adventurous and try something new, not only the well known brand names! and happy drinking.

What's in a glass? I was going through a book last night on the Riedel dynasty and wondered why we are so enamored by glasses. Any host/ess will tell you that a nice glass is essential but in wine it is not just the colour and shape of the glass that is important but also the thickness of the lip and the ability to swirl the wine and admire the legs.

Why does the size of the lip matter? Besides for the fact that no one want to drink good wine from a glass that reminds you of a cheap water glass, you also don't want to interfere with the way the splendid liquid enters your mouth and hits your tongue on impact. And who wants to drink out of a red glass even if it does match your theme? Keep those for the water, how can you admire a fine claret if you can't see it? How can you judge sweetness and alcohol if you cant's see the legs?

The one part were Riedel has gone against common belief is when they designed a tasting glass that actually has a space in the stem for your wine and creates a gentle stream when brought to your mouth, nice to watch! And good to taste from as well. The best way to get your favourite glass though is still to try all your own glasses and see which one does justice to your favourite bottle.

Cape blends-I had the opportunity a couple of weeks ago to taste an extensive range of Cape Blends. To demistify the subject, it needs to have a component of Pinotage in the blend (15%) to be called a Cape Blend but all else is up to the Winemaker, although most winemakers keep to a Bordeaux Blend with Pinotgae. My personal favourite has a dash of Shiraz which lends a touch of toffee to the taste which is LOVELY. My favourites of the evening, Meinert Synchroncity from Stellenbosch (strangely enough they were ALL from Stellenbosch) and the Nikela from Grangehurst the 2000 was fabulous. Both expensive wines, in SA RAND R140 for the Synchronicity and around R115 for the Nikela.

This is a very good way to try Pinotage for the first time as to my mind it is not always very good on it's own, except in premium brands like Diemersfontein, Kanonkop etc. Do give it a try, I will give you a couple of names, Simonsig Tiara, Clos Malverne Auret, Meinert Syncronicity, Grangehurts Nikela, Beyerskloof Synergy, Flagstone Strata but there is around 20 available so do explore.

Happy drinking.