Poor Lucy Shaw, gaffe-prone hack for DB. After a fab freebee to SA for Cape Wine 2012, her hilarious attempt to pay back host WOSA by declaring then CEO Su Birch (did she or did she not quit yesterday?) 48th most powerful woman in wine was derailed by the shockingly sexist image (below) that had sisters and cross-dressers up in arms. Now her story on Oldenburg was sabotaged by the cheap, attention grabbing headline “OLDENBURG OWNER HITS OUT AT PINOTAGE.”

Sure, Adrian Vanderspuy, the winery owner with the broken space bar on his computer, did say “Pinotage? I’ll leave the banana wines to other people” when it should have read “monkeys” but he also said “the world doesn’t need any more Sauvignon Blanc but it does need more Chenin” which would have had the Sauvignon Blanc Interest Group reaching for their XXXL packs of Rennies.

Alas, Adrian’s overwhelmingly positive assessment of the potential for SA reds (barring Pinotage) has now been lost in the howls and histrionics generated by the sub-editor who does another drive-by shooting on SA’s embattled homeboy Pinotage. But then never underestimate the ability of S’effricans to shoot themselves in both feet while digging a hole.

As Pope Francis fingers greed as the major problem of our age (and in the wine industry in particular), hats off to May-Eliane de Lencquesaing for leading the counter attack. For not only does she let Adrian make his Oldenburg wines in her all-singing, all-dancing Glenelly cellar in Ida’s Valley, but she also hosted one of the best tastings ever held in SA. Some wines (above) of the late John Avery were tasted by the Stellenbosch Wine Circle last week in their third tasting of 2013. What would you rather attend, May’s bash or one of those hideously expensive R20,000-a-pop show-off sipping spectaculars being punted around town?