No fewer than four reports on the launch of the pricey Baby Jesus Juice on Grape last week by our latter day Witches of Macbeth Mr. Min, Tim, Angela and Cathy, reminded me of WB Yeats and his Second Coming, in particular the line “The best lack all conviction, while the worst/Are full of passionate intensity.” Heck, Cathy couldn’t even get the name of the wine right, calling Skurfberg, “Skurfbery”; Mr. Min is incoherent as usual “New casts, mostly, 24 months of it, originally” while Tim continues as the Uriah Heep of hedonism: “I have been interested and involved in his project, although with no commercial connections.” Admitting that all this pro-bono imbongi work for the Swartland has no commercial value at all.

The words of Yeats ring true when you hear that after 31 years in harness, the Cape Argus is to retire the weekly wine column of Dave Biggs, noble successor to Lawrence Green, chronicler of the Cape. If the Argus gives up on wine, what hope the rest of SA?

Dave Biggs

At the birthday party to celebrate a decade of winemaking on Diemersfontein on Friday, Dave was the only member of the Fourth Estate (the rest being too tired and emotional) to offer a public recommendation. “As we say in English,” he said, “jy [Diemersfontein and the people involved] is ‘n riem onder my hart” a riempiestoel being a traditional chair in the Boland. On the wisdom of launching a R600-a-bottle wine in the current market, Schalk Burger was on the money when he noted “moenie die hol onder dir hoender uitruk nie.”

Speaking of chickens, one of the biggest beneficiaries of the R25 billion purchase of Didata by Japan’s Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation is Johann Rupert, who invested big when the Didata shareprice was bouncing along the bottom, making a take-out of minorities in Rainbow Chickens and Distell surely only a matter of time.

In Business Day I read that Didata chairman and Waterford owner Jeremy Ord will benefit to the tune of R200 million, although I hear that the true figure may be as much as five times that. Anyway, a lot of money to buy 2009 en primeur Bordeaux. Burgundies can be forgone after tasting a bottle of the Waterford 2009 Pinot Noir kindly supplied by Waterford cellarmaster François Haasbroek. Impressive red cherry fruit and a fine line of acid with elegant wood character and serious length.