When the Thyse tanked at KWV (CEO and Chairman Thys leaving in short succession) I thought the industry’s Thys problem had been solved. However, it seems to have simply moved to Durbanville, where everyone is called Thys this vintage. Here are a couple spotted below at Cape Wine yesterday. One if nicknamed mooi and the other lelik. Can you decided who is who?

Twin Thyse

Certainly Thys Louw seems to make most of the Sauvignon Blanc in the appellation with the Phesantekraal 2012 the latest to pop onto my radar screen. At R52 a bottle, very good value. Let’s hope the Platter palates don’t make the same mistake they made with the Graham Beck Pheasant’s Run which appeared in red print as Peasant’s Run. Confirming that even when you taste sighted, the result is not always infallible.

Hedonism’s pampered hacks will by now have been delivered a bottle of Peasant’s Kraal 2012 as part of an invitation to the Durbanville Seasons of Sauvignon which takes place next weekend. I discovered a consummate pairing for SA Sauvignon Blanc last night at The Conservatory dinner hosted by Chas Banks (above) at the Cellars Hohenort: wasabi pannacotta. The East meets Italy. As Chas remarked “the boy (Peter Templehoff) can sure cook.”

Strong praise indeed from a braaimeister of note who cooks al fresco five days a week and who was punting a barbeque cook-off between Tennessee and SA at his Blackberry Farm resort in the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. Perhaps using badger meat from the great British badger cull. Now that WOSA seems to have abandoned braais in favour of French haute cuisine (Bizerca Bistro was a WOSA staff canteen yesterday as the organization valiantly tried to drain the local wine lake), the SA culinary colours could be carried by Bubba’s of Upington, with wine supplied by Orange River Cellars.