Nothing like sharing a few bottles of wine with a couple of friends! Five of my friends came over for drinks the other day and instead of handing them a beer I decided to open a couple of bottles from my slowly-but-surely-growing wine collection.

All five friends are from different walks of life but they all have one thing in common and that’s their love for wine! None of them are wine experts but all of them enjoy a glass or two, on a regular bases.

Unfortunately for them there’s no such thing as a free “dop” when it comes to my wine collection, so I therefor put their tastebuds to work and got some feedback on the wines they tasted.

The criteria was simple:

• What do you think of the wine?
• Score  the wine out of 20?
• What will you pay for the wine?

The Wines

• Pella – The Vanilla (Chenin Blanc) from Super Single Vineyards in Stellenbosch.
• False Bay Shiraz from Waterkloof Wines in Somerset West.
• Starlette Pinotage from Allee Bleue in Franschhoek.

[listwine id=47365]

Jeane:

Thoughts: Easy drinking and enjoyable
Score: 15/20
Guestimate Price: R70

Adriaan:

Thoughts: Pure taste. Awesome wine!
Score: 16/20
Guestimate Price: R75

Paul

Thoughts: Nice and fruity
Score: 15/20
Guestimate Price: R70

Jan

Thoughts: Stunning wine! Fruity, fresh and extremely enjoyable.
Score: 17/20
Guestamite price: R80

Gil
Thoughts: I’m not really a white wine drinker but I’ll drink this white wine anytime.
Score: 16/20
Guestamite price: R70

[listwine id=47377]

Jeane

Thoughts: This wine goes great with samosas!
Score: 14/20
Guestimate price: R80

Adriaan

Thoughts: It’s an excellent wine, my favourite so far. And it works superbly with the chicken burgers!
Score: 17/20
Guestimate price: R85

Paul

Thoughts: Bit bland and not my style of wine.
Score: 13/20
Guestimate price: R40

Jan

Thoughts: Got some spice. Easy to drink.
Score: 14.5/20
Guestimate price: R60

Gil

Thoughts: It does go great with the samosas. It’s ok, nothing mind blowing.
Score: 14/20
Price: R55

[listwine id=47374]

Jeane

Thoughts: Easy drinking and enjoyable. A typical afterwork time wine
Score:15/20
Guestimate price: R60

Adriaan

Thoughts: Soft with a nice taste.
Score:14/20
Guestimate price: R50

Paul

Thoughts: What’s up with the label? I don’t like it. To big and blue. Makes the wine look cheap. The wine itself is ok.
Score: R13/20
Guestimate price: R40

Jan

Thoughts: I like the nose and the taste
Score: 16/20
Guestimate price: R60

Gil

Thoughts: After taste is intense but a bit dry for my palate
Score: 15/20
Guestimate price: R55

In conclusion 

The top scoring wine out of the lot was The Vanilla from Super Single Vineyards followed by the Starlette from Allee Bleue and the Table Bay Shiraz from Waterkloof. Tight scores!

Money wise – The Starlette from Allee Bleue’s proved to offer the best value at R42 a bottle but The Vanilla’s guestimated price was the closest at R70 a bottle.

Final scores

The Vanilla: 15.8
Table Bay Shiraz: 14.5
Allee Bleue Starlette: 14.6

Thanks to my awesome friends who joined in the fun and sacrificed a little part of their livers. You guys made my task a little bit easier!