Taking the Piss

Sauvignon Blanc is often associated with wee. In fact it’s affectionately referred to as “cat’s pee on a gooseberry bush” in New Zealand where there are so many sheep, cat toilets are forced into the shrubbery. In Johannesburg, there is also something urinal about the grape as restaurateurs use it to take the piss. Exhibit A is a glass of Sauvignon at Orient restaurant in Melrose Arch this lunchtime. R150 for a small glass of Cecil John from Boschendal (trade price R130 a bottle) – sorry I didn’t catch the vintage as I asked the waiter for a glass of Sauvignon Blanc, the most popular white wine in SA.

Cecil John's modest Muizenberg cottage

Cecil John's modest Muizenberg cottage

It was rich and pungent, just as well as after a forkful of the spicy rice that came with my yellowtail in a banana skin, my taste buds had been seared off and needed soothing. Not knowing the price, when asked whether I wanted a refill, I recklessly assented. Two glasses of Cecil for the same price as a 12 bottle case of Two Oceans Sauvignon Blanc 2009 and I’m not even sure if Cecil would rate four stars in WINE magazine.

Still it was quite appropriate to be drinking a glass of wine named after Cecil John Rhodes, the Brett Kebble of his day, along with former JP Morgan MD Ron Gault who has transitioned from banking to winemaking, distribution and retailing. He wisely ordered a glass of Glenwood Chardonnay for R136. We should have stayed in Cape Town where a bottle of La Capra Sauvignon at Willoughby’s on the Waterfront costs R73 – two bottles for less than the price of Cecil at Orient – in a city where half-price sushi has become an institution.

Ron Gault

Ron Gault

Ron’s own Chardonnay, called Passages, which he makes with his wife Charlayne Hunter-Gault of CNN fame, retails for R100 a bottle. Charlayne missed lunch as she’s in Ghana with Jimmy Carter, the transitioned American president.