Is Platter Anti-Afrikaans?

Perusing the 80 five star stunners in the Platter sighted wine guide in the bath this morning – one of the many uses of an iPad – I was amazed at just how Anglophile the planetarium is this year.  No Kanonkop – huh?  not even the Paul Sauer 2009 that better tasters think is best Bordeaux blend in the world.  Not one Rupert wine from L’Ormarins, Anthonij Rupert, Rupert & Rothschild or La Motte. Quite a change from the Wine Spectator’s coverage of SA wine a couple of months back.  No Vergelegen. No Danie de Wet. No Vriesenof.  Am I hallucinating or is there an anti-Afrikaans bias here?

vm

So I threw out the GWG wines – which should never have been included in a popular wine guide in the first place as they are not commercially available – plus corporates like Nederburg, Fleur du Cap and KWV.  By my tally, soutpiele beat the boere 50:15.  By souties I include Germans like Rudiger Gretschel who makes Reyneke, Gottfried Mocke of Chamonix fame, Nitida and Delheim but funnily enough, no French, sacre bleu!

As five star stunners are supposed to be rated blind, what could be the reason for this?  Well they are nominated sighted by a bunch of overwhelmingly English speaking tasters (below): Angela Lasagne, Toothy Tim, Wine Lizard, Cathy Marston, Xtian Eedes…  Of course, as nominations are sighted, they preferentially pick their own: Hamilton Russell, Mullineux, Kershaw, Biggie Smalls, Condé, Newton Johnson, Sijnn, Forrester and of course zillionaire Charles Banks (Fable, twice! and Mulderbosch).

chav

Now that Platter is owned by Diners Club and ultimately by Standard Bank, rather than crusty old buffer Anglo “big mac” McDowell (a bluff Little Englander transplanted from the Home Counties to the Colonies) is such an anti-Afrikaans agenda supportable?

Is the Platter 80 a true representation of the best wines in SA?  Not on your Nelly, as they say in Neasden.  The Platter five star stable is an embarrassment to Diners Club and Standard Bank and one day their customers might even notice.  Will ABSA or Capitec fill the void in the same way that Du Toitskloof stepped in with a wine writers award when Franschhoek went postal?  Perhaps the grizzled eminence behind Platter, Biggie Smalls, should remember what happened to Wallpaper when Johann taught them a lesson, for much less.