So it seems that I was not the only investor to pick up on the nonsense spouted by Morgan Stanley in their Global Wine Survey this month. Perhaps Moron Stanley would be more appropriate for these Black Swan forecasters who missed the target. While I highlighted their ridiculous view on SA, Wines & Vines tears holes as big as Platter’s credibility in their contention that world wine production is at a 40-year low? and comments dryly that Morgan Stanley are at odds with other experts.  Oh, and the facts.

For example “the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV) just announced that global wine production is forecast to climb 8.8%, to the highest level in seven years, as grape harvests rebound in Spain, Argentina and France. The group said that the 2013 vintage should hit 281 million hectoliters (7.4 billion gallons), up from 258.2 million hectoliters in 2012. (The tally previously was estimated at 250.9 million hectoliters.) Italy will remain the largest producer, followed by France and Spain. “After five modest harvests in a row and an exceptionally weak 2012 harvest, wine production in 2013 can be qualified as relatively high,” reported the OIV. ‘The wine world this year returns to the levels of 2006.’ ” Does anyone pay good money for advice from Moron Stanley?

To drown my sorrows and escape the city centre riot of poo flingers in Cape Town yesterday that should do wine tourism wonders in New Zealand, Australia, Chile and Argentina, I adjourned to the South China Dim Sum Bar in Long Street, confident that Ed Hung’s Kung Fu moves would keep any faeces throwing service delivery protesters at bay. Along with the usual superb dim sum, we had a bottle of Thelema Sutherland Viognier Rousanne 2010. What a great wine. Intensely flavours, smooth palate, lingering after taste and more than enough body to see off Ed’s mild chili paste.

As my date said “if you can’t sell viognier, add some Rousanne, a cultivar that no one’s ever even heard of.” Couldn’t have said it better myself.