Terrific bit of navel-gazing and lint gathering from Linsday Johns in the Telegraph yesterday on whether Dr. House (Hugh Laurie) was entitled to sing the Blues and even release a CD of moans and groans. As House humorously put it “I was not born in Alabama in the 1890s. I’ve never eaten grits, cropped a share, or ridden a boxcar. I am a white, middle-class Englishman, openly trespassing on the music and myth of the American south.”

Of course that other bunch of white middle-class Englishmen choosing SA’s Top 100 Wines have no such cultural qualms in pontificating on Pinotage or venting on Viognier. Nor should they, as there’s not much else to do in St. James when it rains and besides, wine is a global commodity, a bit like the Blues.

As for the task of choosing 100 wines from a sliver of entries, is anyone really waiting to hear how a Pinotage can be compared to a Riesling, an MCC to a Merlot? Probably not, although fortunately the Consumer Protection Act will be in force in time to stop anyone calling the white middle-class selection the Top 100 SA Wines.