After Jancis Robinson raved about Boer & Brit, a funky blend of Malbec and Aragonêz, it was only a matter of time before QEII bought a bottle. Which she has recently done, according to Stellenbosch sources. Mrs. Robinson, bibulous adviser to Brenda (as Private Eye calls Her Maj) called the wine “a glorious story, v nice packaging and a fair enough price. I think it has a very flattering nose, and it’s an interesting blend.” The packaging was designed by Fanakalo who did the art work and design for the Good Value Guru Diaries 2010, the first copies of which landed in SA last week. The wine was made by dynamic duo Stefan Gerber and Alexander Milner, two of the brightest rising stars in the SA wine firmament.

Rohan and Jan aka Fanakalo

Bush hats off to WOSA for embracing the burnt rubber odor some UK wine writers detect in SA reds by producing a Braai Book. WOSA media liaison guru André Morgenthal is credited as “culinary consultant” confirming just how multi-tasking this spin doctor has become: tweets, tjops and telephone calls all in a day’s work.

Allegations of plagiarism from the braai4heritage folk that they were first with the news of the discovery of a pair of paleolithic braaitongs at Sterkfontein should not be allowed to sour the sous although Koos Visser would have been a handy inclusion in the book after his lamb chops defeated Durbanville’s finest at Diemersdal last year in the annual tjop tchallenge. But then the book would have to have been called SA Wine Braai Masters instead of Cape Wine Braai Masters – no bad thing as production from the Orange River appellation is up strongly this year to 42 million litres while Western Cape production slumped.