At least one SA producer is taking Eric Asimov’s Manichean contention seriously. While Yahweh separated light and darkness, Eric divides the Mondovino up into sweet and savoury, or savory in his case. Which rings a bell in SA, a country which pioneered the legislated black/white dichotomy known as Apartheid. I personally think kak/lekker is a more useful decision function for wine, but I’m prepared to see if the sweet wines of Nederburg cellarmaster Razvan Macici can lubricate an entire meal prepared by Jacques Erasmus at the newly opened Hemelhuijs Restaurant in Waterkant Street, Cape Town, next month.

Billed as a exploration of the “increasingly porous borders between sweet and savoury”, the novel dinner marks a further repositioning of the Nederburg brand into the kitchen. A useful place to be when wine advertising dries up through legislation aimed at promoting a more sober SA.

Sir David Tang, sweet wine style adviser

Sir David Tang, sweet wine style adviser

As I prepare for the meal, I am helped immeasurably by Sir David Tang, whose Agony Uncle column is my “must-read” in the Weekend FT. For the pressing social problem of sweet wine is “does one raise one’s little finger when drinking from a dinky dessert wine glass?” After all, Responsible Drinking is less of an issue as Nederburg stickies bounce along at around 10% alcohol, although fat fetishists may worry about calorific content.

Sir David gives the following advice in the case of tea, that other great colonial drink, and I think it may be carried over without comment.

“If the cup is chunky, then sticking your little finger out is a scientific way of counter-balancing the cup. So if this is done for practicality, it would be acceptable. The gesture is, however, rather effeminate. So I don’t really recommend it to men who should have no excuse picking up a hot cup of tea, unless they have an ulterior motive of sending some hidden signals, as they gaze across the room.”