How much? R55;
Where? Oak Valley Wines, turn left (again) at the gnarly Elgin oak, 27 (0)21 859 4110;
Why? It was Douglas Adams who proposed that 42 “explains the secret of life, the universe, and everything” in Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. This being the 42nd wine in my labour of Hercules, it certainly does answer a few questions and raise a few others. Like all good answers do.

Peter pours the Butcher's Block

Answered is the question can you take the Cape’s top two tannic grapes, Merlot and Cabernet Franc, and make something drinkable? Oak Valley winemaker Peter Visser has supplied the answer in the affirmative with this wine for it’s secret is tannic grip without hardness. Sight, taste, smell and touch are the usual senses deployed in wine tasting and this one scores big in the last two as Franc supplies a fleeting floral perfume that kicks this blend out of the jammy fruit department into the Next Level of the computer game called life.

Unanswered is why am I writing an unpaid blog which PR people can cite in their bills to producers? I didn’t even get a free bottle of this wine, but rather cadged a glass at Societi Bistro from mine host with the most, Peter Weetman. But then I didn’t have to watch a leading wine judge boogie at Mzoli’s, the Gugulethu braii house at which the wine was most appropriately launched.

Rating? ****

*****: Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
****: The Salmon of Doubt
***: The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
**: The Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul
*: The Da Vinci Code