How much? R90;
Where? Checker, Checkers, just up your street!;
Why? Petit Verdot and Viognier are my least favourite red and white cultivars respectively for the simple reason that in a blend, a little goes a long way and most often too far. Bottled on its own, Viognier can be too peachy, too big (15% alcohol is not uncommon), too blowsy, too… obvious. It’s also a bugger to pronounce.

Nederburg at the Troyeville Hotel

Yet this intense, complex, almost dry dessert wine style from the capacious cellar of Razvan Macici is the exception that proves the rule. It is the best wine I’ve drunk this year by a country mile. Sold at the Nederburg Auction in 2006, 2007 and again in 2009 where it was snapped up by the Shoprite-Checkers supermarket chain whose own continent-wide distribution channels then scattered it to the four winds, it is gems like these that can convert ordinary drinkers into lifetime oenophiles.

Produced in small volumes on the Helderberg say, it would never get beyond Cape Town and the secret stashes of Platter tasters, wine insiders and other dead ends. Retailed by a supermarket chain and you have a national, nay continental, treasure.

The only mystery remaining is the moniker D212: was the cellar master’s sweetheart born on December 2 or February 21?

Rating: *****

*****: papaya
****: plum
***: peach
**: mango
*: durian