handtomouth

It’s interesting how often wine lists in restaurants give the lie to the suggestions of quality that the eateries are trying to convince you of. Money spent on fine fittings, enormous rentals to hold beautiful positions, a menu that boasts fresh this and the best that – and a wine list that is not only founded utterly on commercial wines but usually littered with errors in spelling. Continue reading ‘Wine lists at restaurants’

Moni’s have just launched a Fino sherry in a becoming 500ml bottle that chills down good and fast. I’ve always been a big fino fan, the fresh, salty, racy drink that goes so damn well with seafood or as a sundowner, is hard to resist. Moni’s are well known for the medium cream and sweet styles, so it’s wonderful that they have finally bottled this one. I wonder if it’s their “dry” sherry in a better bottle?

Anyway, although not as good as a Spanish bottle (at R120 or so for 750ml of Tio Pepe), this fino at R45 is a pleasant alternative.

On Friday, three bottles of wine compromised by cork:
Bottle one – a corked wine, spoilt by TCA in the cork.
Bottle two – an oxidised wine, compromised by a leaking cork.
Bottle three – a dry cork that broke in the neck, so that the cork had to be pushed through – not the most elegant action at a restaurant table.

One of the most pleasant wines I have drunk recently (note drunk, not tasted, the difference is in the pleasure over the course of a whole bottle) is the L’Avenir Chenin Blanc 2006.

L’Avenir’s Chenin has always been a good wine, as has their Pinotage. When the estate underwent a change of ownership and Michel Laroche, of the French wine family with Chablis roots, bought it two years ago, there was a wait-and-see period. That ended with the release, now in the international Laroche bottle, of the new L’Avenir vintage. Continue reading ‘Michel Laroche and L’Avenir’

A nascent map of the bloggers of the wine world has begun at the Wine Atlas, and as it populates it should become a great resource.

Travelling the Cape’s magnificent garden route to visit some restaurants for my guide. Along the way, have come across a few good ones that happen to be in guest houses. There is a trend for upmarket guest houses to bring a “name” chef in and to create a semi-stand alone restaurant, but I am not convinced that this always translates into a success for the outside visitor.

At Daniela’s on Leisure Isle, Knysna, for example, a place that is highly regarded by foodies, the lunch visit was not one that I would rush to repeat. The deck and views were great, but there was no-one else there. Wait, the guys fixing the roof were there, and so were the guys delivering the umbrellas. The chef rushed off, and the front of house was vague.

Dinner is when it happens, I guess, and this is the nub of the problem: places like this don’t feel the need to be “switched-on” all the time. They have other concerns, like the rooms, and the restaurant is always ancillary. A restaurant, on the other hand, needs to be the constant fly-trap – if you are open, you need to allure. You can be open and vague, but you certainly won’t last.

So I am thinking of dropping these “in-house” restaurants from the guide. Of course, there is always space for a restaurant that happens to have rooms… but there are few of these in the Cape, or South Africa. It’s more a European thing.

Courtesy of a friend who finished school with me in 1987, this bottle shared on the weekend. Interestingly, although shiraz is now the variety that most producers are hot to bottle, L’Ormarins no longer have a shiraz in their line-up. Then again, in those days L’Ormarins also had riesling and bukettraube bottled! They first bottled shiraz in 1983, when the John Platter guide judged it a “very wooded” wine in a “medium to lighter style”.

The 1987 is also in the medium style, with pure white pepper notes on the nose and a satisfying palate weight even after 20 years. The 12,5% alcohol no doubt accounts for its structure – in the 1980s alcohols over 13% were considered pretty heady. Interesting how the tolerable alcohol level “band” has grown – with anything from 13 to 16 now on the table, and 13 considered light by its peer review.

Platter editions from the 1980s talk the Rupert-owned L’Ormarins up as a winery to take on the world, matching flash Californian spreads in majesty and wine quality. While that promise hasn’t quite materialised, it remains a quality producer, now with far fewer wines in the range.

It’s not particularly thrilling reading, but Eric Asimov has recently written a very positive article on SA chenins in the New York Times. Turns out that chenin is a variety that he is personally fond of.

He does make the point that SA wines are generally priced very low in the States, an indication of the esteem they are held in. The quality is there, but not the image. In fact, his article begins with a “hey, would you believe there is great chenin in SA?” tone. He also suggests, hopefully, that growers will not turn away from chenin simply because it is associated with the past, in favour of the “new” darlings of sauvignon and chardonnay, and all the reds that people have planted and still are, even though there is a glut of red on the market.

Amen to that, and good to see our chenin praised.

The high-profile collaboration between Klein Constantia’s Jooste and Bruno Prats and de Bouard – Anwilka – saw its second vintage release last Friday night. It was a very missable affair, unfortunately, stiff with Bordeaux negotiants. Which was also the reason that they were launching the 2006 already, it’s the en primeur concept. So, not having great experience with tasting wines that are far too young, all I can say is that it is a serious wine, while not being overly-laboured with oak.

A group of us escaped to dinner. Pastis in Constantia, which used to be reasonable and is now a comedy of slow service and average food: “We don’t serve the mussels anymore. Too many people were getting sick and dying.” I was tempted to ask whether these unfortunate diners got to their cars or died in their seats.

Pity, since the location is superb and the outside courtyard a winner. Our saviour came in the form of the Cape Point Isliedh 2005 which was well priced. It’s a subtle wine, keeps coming at you but with a whispering insistence. Delicately wooded, fresh and tangy.

I’ve been told it’s a Russian thing. From the red carpet with its classical ensemble and roses where vintage Dom Perignon flowed to the bountiful glasses of some of the world’s great wines – there was a palpable tang of excess in the air. This was wine bling, there was as much as you desired, and the next incredible wine arriving even before you’d had the chance to really get to know the last. This was the launch of Haskell Vineyards, a new winery on the Annandale Road in Stellenbosch.

In the spirit of the day, here are the wines we were poured: Continue reading ‘Russian roulette’

“Optimal ripeness is an extremely relative term”. How much truth is not contained in these words from Chris Mullineux? I’ve written about this before, and it’s very refreshing to get some honesty from a winemaker, not the sense that “optimal ripeness” is some clear point of a graph. In fact, it is subjective, and Chris harvesting on taste is a welcome change from the dreaded “physiological ripeness” chimera.