What an inspired choice for a venue to showcase Karoo wine – the Airstream trailers on top of the Grand Daddy Hotel in Long Street.  All very My Own Private Idaho, I’m sure.  And what a kast of kêrels! Some of the bittereinders are shown below.

And what stunning wines: a trio of salty Sauvignons Blanc from Boplaas, De Krans and Hillock although the grapes come from Outeniqua, Outeniqua and Darling respectively. How many Sauvignons does Theo Basson have a grape in, I wonder? As many as stars in a galaxy perhaps. Or is 100-1000 million a little on the low side? Counting was out of the question due to low cloud cover in town last night, so we had to make do with some inspired Bushman star art.

Andy Hillock’s best wine is his 12.5% mineral Chenin Blanc 2013 made from grapes grown on 22 year old vines growing under the Towerkop of Ladismith. Andy recently made the transition from excising piles to harvesting grapes and a photo from his transition period is shown below:

A super Bordeaux blend from Joubert Tradauw with Meyer Joubert a shoo-in for the Keanu Reeves role in Idaho. Super Oudtshoorn terroir from Jacques Conradie (below) and his Durif (Petite Syrah in Idaho) is a showstopper. Jacques is surfing the craft beer “solid wave” at the mo, although he does admit it is a bubble waiting to pop and unleash even more CO2 into the air to cause freak hailstorms in the Koue Bokkeveld and typhoons in Sardinia. But in the meantime, craft beer is a license to print money. Just as well, as making wine is worse than being married to an unemployed shopaholic with designer tastes.