Swartland Sadie leads Michelin BYO charge

As UK restaurants fall like nine pins and allow BYO to fill tables vacated by the economic recession, how ironic that Eben Sadie’s Palladius 2007 is The Guardian’s first pick of bottles to take along to your neighbourhood Michelin three star spot. The Grauniad’s tasting note on a bottle to pass “the snooty sommelier’s sniff test”:

Eben Sadie

Eben Sadie

2007 Palladius, Sadie Family Wines, South Africa (£35, Berry Bros. & Rudd)

Winemaker Eben Sadie is the Cape’s hottest player and this stunning, richly layered white, in all its stone fruit and mineral glory, shows why.

The irony lies in the observation that Eben’s Johannesburg champion is Alan Pick whose Butcher’s Shop & Grill would likely be the last restaurant standing in banning BYO, as Alan insists “I sell the moment, not the bottle” as he cornered the local market in Sequillo to make his point.