The stock market has fallen madly in love with Distell, or DST as they abbreviate it. The share price flirted with R130 today while some unfortunate directors were selling under R100 late last year to pay for their boland bomas… Distell is now as popular in Lonehill as David Bowie is in London which is wall-to-wall Bowie: two art exhibitions at the ICA and V&A and a new album The Next Day which is rated the aural equivalent of five Platter stars by rock critics. All ratings being done sighted, alas, but thank heavens not by pedestrian Pinelands pundits. So hats off to Nederburg for shipping a CD of The Next Day to wine hacks along with a bottle of Baronne 2011, surely the noble tipple for a thin white duke.

Of course the connections linking Bowie to Cape Town stretch well beyond wine as local artist Beezy Bailey has been a long-time collaborator with Ziggy who was at his first career peak in 1973, the year Günter Brözel invented the benchmark Cab/Shiraz blend he called Bärönne.

Today the stuff is made by Wilhelm Pienaar, who says “it’s just the wine you want for bonding, whether you are with the family, watching sport with your mates or celebrating an occasion. It’s a fixture in our house and in so many others. I love that you find it in so many parts of the world. When you are far away from home and you encounter a bottle, it’s like bumping into an old friend.” An experience shared by Bowie fans as The Next Day brings the duke back into the social frame.

What chances Nederburg asks Major Tom to open the Nederburg Auction this year? Then the share price would really go into orbit, like star man Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (who should also have been given a Green Lifetime Achievement Award by Drinks Business).