Congratulations to Arran, new manager at Societi Bistro, holding a bottle of Paardenkloof 2008 Shiraz from Bot River, liquid proof of the Olly Smith dictum “Look at the label. Shiraz and Syrah are the same grape in different expressions: Shiraz tends to be fruity and boozy, Syrah offers more elegance and lower alcohol.” For Die Lang Pad is a Shiraz and at 15%, light it is not. Aren’t these UK wine critics just the bomb?

The wine is a superb match to the 500g T-bone which is part of Societi’s trip around Italy this week. Die Lang Pad is an appropriate name, as you can taste the trail dust in the glass, which as Louis L’Amour pointed out to Beyers Truter, is thicker than blood.

PaardenKloof is a canny name to call your wine estate as it sounds so Swartland, which should play well to label drinkers like Tim James spied skulking outside the gents at the Taj yesterday after putting Cognac up against SA brandy. Well the weather certainly played along as someone told me Cape Town was as cold as the South Pole. Real weather for an Arran knit and a Cognac twit.

Meanwhile the Guardian carries on publishing amazing stories about lady gardens. There were two yesterday – one focusing on the hatred art critic John Ruskin had for matrimonial pubes and another on the banning of the artwork above. The painting was removed from the Society of Women Artists’ 153rd annual exhibition at the Mall Galleries after being deemed “disgusting” and “pornographic.” It’s likely that the Whale Cottage blogger is involved in this campaign as they do so block the drains of his guest house in Camps Bay.