Whisky Live was seething with wine life last night. Fast rising entrepreneur John Woodward of Jo’burg Wine Show fame was doing the rounds and gave me his tasting glass and tickets as “whisky makes me queasy.” And there I was thinking that “frisky” was the objective. John reports that several big guns have signed up for his JWS next year including Vergelegen, KWV, Nederburg and Simonsvlei as well as such niche producers as Uva Mira. Good news for the show business as some are losing exhibitors at an alarming rate. Do deckchairs and the Titanic come to mind? Let’s hope not!

I passed John’s tickets on to Herman Kirschbaum of Buitenverwachting who was on a peaty mission. That’s him above comparing notes with Tomintoul fourth generation distiller Robert Fleming whose Old Ballantruan single malt (50% alcohol, R330 at Tops at Spar) is a peat monster of note. I later spied Herman reeling out of Benriach. “Try the peated 21 year old he winked… pure magic.” And at R1400 a bottle, Wayne Keiswetter’s wee dram certainly was. That’s Wayne below: