Pinot and chicken thali

What is it with Pinot Noir?  Nothing for years and then two in a week?  It’s like having sex when you’re over 50.  Alex Dale calls it Freedom and although I was not the first wine commentator to taste the 2010 – that honour went to Dubai-based baby banker Markus of previous blog posts – I deflowered the 2011 at Carne on Tuesday and was gobsmacked by an elegant femininity as opposed to the defined masculinity, linearity even, of the 2010.  Violets and celery or where they the pheromones swirling in from other tables like the sea mist rolling in at Misty Cliffs?  This is real Romeo and Juliet juice and just about as much fun you can have under R200 a bottle with your clothes on.

Elegant Elgin Vintners on Tuesday evening

The Elgin Vintners 2010 Pinot Noir is even cheaper – under R100 and worth double.  While Anthony Hamilton Russell’s Pinot broke the R100 price ceiling on the way up a couple of decades ago, in this age of permanent austerity, Elgin Vintners break it on the way down, supplying plutocratic pleasure at poverty price levels.  Who said sex is only for the rich?

Speaking of which, did you see the Christmas ad for Cockburns Port which features a 12 inch pianist with the strapline (as opposed to strap-on) for responsible pronunciation?  When will Calitzdorp let it all hang out?

Cape Town food is demonstrating the same effects of gravity or lack of Viagra and Johannesburg can expect the same following the discovery of the (David) Higgs boson earlier this month, that sub-atomic particle that provides mass to everything we eat.  Head off to Food Inn India at 156 Long Street for a truly excellent chicken thali – more than you can eat for R40 and a naan bread bigger than your head.  A challenge to Johan Wegner of GetWine to provide budget bottles to match the Indian specials like Tandoori chicken with chips at all of R25, with salad.