Food & Drink. Travel. Est. 2005
It’s difficult to escape Swartland. Though not the prettiest of the Cape’s wine regions, the wines are so bloody good. I’m talking about those made with minimal intervention. City on a Hill The City on a Hill 2016 is one that knocked me off my perch. Bold, textured, savoury, spicy and with none too much acid, it’s also comparatively low alcohol at 12.5%. The viognier brings that dirty edginess of tropical fruits that balances out the acid of the chenin […]
The Kloof Street old vine chenin blanc from Mullineux Family Wines is terrific value costing about R90.
The attraction of the Sijnn saignee is as a chilled summer quaffer with a light pinot noir like weight.
Hogan’s Chenin Blanc is a wine with rich savoury and pear flavours. It is a stunning chenin blanc from Swartland in South Africa.
The Avondale Armilla blancs de blancs is a terrific value sparkling chardonnay from Paarl made using the Méthode Cap Classique technique. It’s a better alternative to higher priced mass market Champagnes.
Consult a financial adviser before drinking from a Riedel. Dishwasher tablets erode your glasses and crockery. Use liquid instead. Decant heavier reds at least 8 hours before drinking. If you want to drink champagne (usually a blend of chardonnay pinot pinot meunier and pinot noir) rather than sip it, use a pinot noir glass. I’ve spent my whole life avoiding scrapes with cults. There was the incident in London on the Tottenham Court Road where, bunking off school aged 14, […]
It’s the dream of many to buy a cute little vineyard somewhere and start making wine, good wine hopefully. It’s the sort of hobby that sends people broke with high entry costs and often inferior wine produced. But oh what a joy to drink something you’ve made yourself, even though all your friends just want to spit rather than swallow. The sensible way to make wine is not to own a vineyard. All you need is access to good grapes […]
Padron peppers: are you game? A box arrived in the post, a big one, packed with padron peppers. They were plump, bright green ones, picked the day before by Garry Crittendon, the pioneering winemaker on the Mornington Penisula, who first planted vines there in 1982 at the age of 28. These padrons were far larger and more vibrant in color than any I’ve seen for sale in some of the better food stores and in Melbourne’s markets. They looked and […]
When Heston Blumenthal, one of the world’s most recognised chefs, starts to recommend sherry as the ideal match to food, it’s time to stand-up and reassess this fortified wine. In Australia, we have a ready supply of imported sherries, but also locally made wines in the sherry style. These are now called “apera”, a branding invented because Australia needed a new term for sherry after the signing of the international wine agreement, which outlaws outside countries from naming their products […]