Help for SA wine from an unexpected quarter.  Californian blog Hosemaster (below) – “Wine Blogs Are the Attention-Barking of Lonely Poodles” – savages Wall Street Journal Pinotage Hater Lettie Teague with hedonistic hysteria.

“Lettie Teague has a fascinating column about South Africa and all the innovations in winemaking coming from that country.  ‘California wineries could learn a valuable lesson from their South African counterparts and begin harvest in February,’ she notes.  ‘It’s also a lot easier to find seasonal help that time of year.  And the lions aren’t as active.’”

Up in Johannesburg for a ZA Chenin Pizzeria meeting with Gianni Mariano to draw up the menu for our Food|Wine|Design offering in three weeks time.  Mandarin was the lingua franca on the flight up from Cape Town and we were even greeted in passable Cantonese at the SAA check-in.  The late Anton Rupert was quoted in the Weekend Financial Times as saying every tourist brings seven jobs to SA and he was not often wrong.

One of the many positions opened up by the Asian invasion is writing about whisky in Sawubona, the in-flight magazine. While SAA may no longer serve the Scottish stuff in poverty class, they still hire the ridiculous Mr. Min to waffle on about Irish Whisky (sic).  He can’t even spell rite and the rest of the story on the Whisky Live festival is equally dire.  Perhaps he should stick to Pol Roger then SAA could hire Mr. Li as whisky wordsmith.