Thursday, July 01, 2021

In MENU This Week. Old Mutual Trophy, Chenin Day, Allesverloren dinner, Nuy Merlot and a Rant

The heron is back, trying to catch our koi

We cannot be sure of when we will next publish MENU. For at least the next week, probably much longer, we are all in a severe state of lock down. Most importantly, the government has dealt the wine and hospitality industries another crippling, if not fatal, blow. So we celebrate a few excellent wines here and end with a rant about the damage done and what we believe to be the causes and effects.

The results of the 2021 Old Mutual Trophy Wine Show were announced on a special edition of Dan Really Likes Wine at midday on 30th June. Broadcast from The Houghton in Johannesburg, the live online event included the on-screen participation of the leading category winners as well as several of the judges.

Despite a lower medal count overall, there was a broad spread of trophy winners covering almost all of the major categories. It is clear that the industry has more or less recovered from the devastation of the drought years, though – with entries down 10% on 2020 - not from the 19 weeks of trading bans imposed during the first two waves of the pandemic. 

Read on...


Chenin Blanc Day - Two wonderful vintage Chenins

We have had some excellent wines this last week. We had two super choices for International Chenin Blanc day on Friday and it was very hard to choose. We were having them with quite plebeian food, such is life at the moment as we are not prepared to go out much and they made it taste superb. South African Chenin Blancs are magnificent, and we love it that they have such different styles. 
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Wine and Dine Evening with Allesverloren at The Peninsula

There is quite a struggle at the moment for us to decide whether or not to go if someone invites us to a function or just to supper. We were invited last week to this lovely Allesverloren wine paired dinner at the Peninsula Hotel’s Sunset Restaurant (on the beachfront in Sea Point and mainly a timeshare property) that we have been meaning to visit for a while. We said “yes, on condition that we would not at any time be standing about 'socialising'” and our hosts, Leigh Taberer and Francois Joubert, said that was what they were going to do. So we met sitting down, masked and after a welcome introductory drink there, went straight to our table. It was a very good experience, but what has happened since means it will probably be the last function we attend for a while. We are now in Stage 4 lockdown again because of the fast spread of the Delta variant of Covid
Read on...

Nuy Merlot

A delivery of two samples of Nuy Inspiration Merlot did take us a while to try, but we were very glad we did. It’s a new addition to the wines from the Nuy winery, in the valley between Worcester and Robertson, best known for many awards for their White and Red muscadels. We buy them and let them mature in our cellar; they really benefit from a few years maturation

A Rant

Despair. There are families all over this country for whom this is a reality. We’ve been down this road before, last year. But this idiotic, corrupt government does not learn. Last year, they banned sales of alcoholic drinks and, just as in Prohibition USA, the illicit traders filled their pockets, while the country’s revenues suffered as they lost income from excise duties, VAT and other tax sources. Now, they have put their spear through the heart of so many producers, retailers, restaurateurs, hoteliers and all the people whom they employ
Read on...






1st July 2021

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