A disastrous Friday night dinner at Keenwä, the Peruvian restaurant on Buitengracht, was saved by a brace of Burgundian stunners from Hoopenburg, a Stellenbosch estate that has flown under my personal radar for way too long.

Hoopenburg: Burgundy in the Boland

Both wines were from the 2009 vintage and both retail for under R100.  The Integer Chardonnay is intensely flavoured – so much so in fact it should be drunk after the Pinot Noir, which is exquisitely feminine.  A bit like the charming Peruvian waitress.

Dr. Andy Rompel, a frequent contributor to this site, now lives in Lima and is full of the intensity of flavour of Peruvian cuisine which at Keenwä unfortunately translates to too much salt.  The previous evening we’d been spoilt rotten by Frank at Savoy Cabbage.  Unable to make up our minds, he whizzed up a degustation menu from a selection of starters and mains, all exquisitely prepared by a young chef with the shiniest black hair ever (we were sitting on the upper deck).

A bottle of 1994 Noval LBV Port convinced us of the sheer majesty and achievement of the style and presaged the announcement of Paul Symington as Decanter Man of the Year on the weekend.  Scrolling through the list of Decanter worthies, the absence of a South African is embarrassing.  Perhaps the industry should pay a PR company like Wine Intelligence to start a competition.  What?  They already have?  Wonderful!