Are specialist wine retail outlets doomed to go the way of the dodo and the wine lizard’s bolla? You’d think so when the Daily Mail’s Wine Guru Olly Smith recommends interweb retailers who offer free delivery in mainland UK.
“Shopping for wine online is a great way to save time, money and heavy lifting. Gone are the days of being obliged to buy 12 bottles of the same wine with very little discount. These days you can mix and match, with many retailers such as Majestic offering six-bottle cases and offers from independents like corksout.com offering no minimum number of bottles and free delivery for purchases over £40. If you know what you’re after, specialist merchants abound. For example, if you’re a devotee of organic wine, vintageroots.co.uk is impeccable; for natural wine (minimal sulphites) lescaves.co.uk is ace; or for South African wine check out sawinesonline.co.uk.”
Supermarkets are safe, as price will remain the most important wine feature for the foreseeable future. So Pick ‘n Pay’s sponsorship of this weekend’s Stellenbosch Wine Festival makes marketing sense. Likewise niche operations like our own Pendock Private Cellar at the Taj Hotel serves a small, but touristically important, market.
A big cowboy ten gallon hats off to Quando Sauvignon Blanc 2013 for being the only non-French wine in Olly’s line up this week (above). It’s “brimming with zesty allure” according to the Ollster, which is what I tell Ed Hung when I break out in a cheesy rendition of Quando, Quando, Qunado in South China Dim Sum after one too many bottles.
Dimmi quando tu verrai,
dimmi quando… quando… quando…
l’anno, il giorno e l’ora in cui
forse tu mi bacerai…
Quando farm is located in Robertson, an appellation perhaps more famous for Chardonnay and brandy in the shape of Klipdrift. Next Saturday we’re filming an insert for CCTV, a network of 45 channels broadcasting different programmes which is accessible to more than one billion viewers, on how Africans celebrate Chinese New Year which starts on Friday. Our angle is brandy and dim sum and Fine Brandies by Design will supply the fire water. Ed has put on his Guangzhou keppie and come up with a special Karoo lamb, garlic, mint and yoghurt pot sticker paired with Klipdrift Gold distilled in Robertson in the Klein Karoo, with which to gan bei! the New Year. Booking is essential 078 846 3656.
My Chinese New Year present to Luan is the horse (above) from Wilhelm Saayman. Wilhelm called it “And behold, a Pale horse without a Ryder.” Hope he won’t mind if I call it (in my best Johnny Cash growl) Yippie yi yaaaay, Yippie yi ohhhhh…
