Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

Sitting in the garden of Societi Bistro last night, I was double tasking de luxe. Trying to think of the female equivalent of Ramkat (Puss?), the working title of a last Friday of the month brandy lunch club and trying to see if it was Madiba’s palm being projected onto Table Mountain or his face. The jury is still out.

Which is not the case for the Bosman indulgence (below) which must be the best deal in the Mother City. R70 buys four tots of brandy and four wildly exotic portions of charcuterie from the barn of Richard Bosman. Is this the way to convince Ramkatte to switch to Richelieu from those unpronounceable hairy sporrans Abhainn Dearg (pronounced: avin jerrəg), Allt-A-Bhainne  (pronounced: olta-VAYne), Auchentoshan  (pronounced: OchunTOshun) or Auchroisk  (pronounced: othrUjsk) – and that’s just the A’s?

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Today is a Red Letter Day for the marketing department at FNB with the memorial service for Madiba beamed out to billions and their Soweto stadium, ground zero for the event.

Which makes the timing of the launch of Cape Vintner Classification yesterday at Ellerman House doubly ironic. For Elly is owned by Paul Harris who made the Big Bucks when Barclays pulled out of SA under Mandela-related sanctions pressure.

Although members of BAWSI, Women on Farms, BAWUSA ens. should be forgiven for thinking that launching an association to promote premium SA wines at a R50,000 a night plutocrat redoubt above Bantry Bay, is rubbing their noses (and Nosey) in it de luxe. Long gone are the days when the ATKV Goudini Spa was the ne plus ultra for SA wine events.

Of course I can’t criticize luxurious lunches as my own Pendock Wine Gallery, the original one now imitated at Elly, is located in the even more luxurious Taj Hotel, a former financial institution. Perhaps the world would be a far better place if all banks were converted into wine galleries.

Certainly wine galleries have a role to play in the promotion of premium SA wine. A fact confirmed by Duimpie Bayly popping up as chair of CVC. The very same Duimpie who opened the first exhibition of our wine gallery – Pinotage, Naughty Boy of SA Wine – back in September. We sold 13 cases to Lima and 16 to Bordeaux, which is the kind of penetration CVC would kill for.

Perhaps CVC big wheel Johann Rupert will pop-up a Wine Gallery at his all singing, all dancing 2,250 m2 retail space at 12, Boulevard des Capucines in Paris. After all, Paris has a glorious tradition of ripping off (surely embracing? ed.) African art as Picasso demonstrated.