La Vie en Rosé

Only in SA would the memorial service for the closest we’ve come to a saint (Mahatma G notwithstanding) be overshadowed by a Zelig sign language interpreter, a US president flirting with a Danish PM while taking selfies while the SA president gets booed by the lumpen proletariat.  We’re living in cloud cuckoo land, as can be seen when the rich end of SA wine insist that the top end of site-specific wine must retail at a minimum of E15 a bottle, one of the requirements for Cape Vintner Classification which has the most gorgeous website in the business. Since when is price a terroir variable? Will tastings be thus done sighted as how else do you taste price?  If this is the case, the whole box-and-dice will follow Platter into the rubbish bin of history.

cvc

Tata’s memorial was hardly a carbon friendly affair with M. Sarkozy and M. Hollande arriving on separate aircraft. At least Messrs Obama and George W shared Airforce One, which has plenty of space for taking selfies. But the future of SA wine lies in France with exports up 300% this year while the big question remains: who is drinking 19m litres of Rosé?

Turns out that grapefruit flavoured low alcohol coolers are the latest fad in France, the country who brought the world the 1855 Bordeaux classification that the CVC are trying to emulate. The French want Namaqua Rosé manne, not E15 terroir wines from Franschhoek. I’m betting that Namaqua, Du Toitskloof and EJ Gallo will make a heck of a lot more profit that the entire membership of CVC. King Canute tried to hold back the tide but as the rain gods proved at Madiba’s memorial, you can’t fart against thunder.