The Lisboa wine appellation handed SA consumers a lesson in value for money at the Table Bay Hotel yesterday. At a trade tasting presented by 8 visiting Portuguese winemakers, SA wine buyers from Shoprite Checkers, Woolworths, Spar, Liquor City, Cybercellar, the Wine Cellar and divers restaurateurs and bespoke retailers were amazed at the value for money on offer.

One importer of Italian wines wondered if our weekly RECM Best Value tastings are restricted to SA wines? Of course not and if Portuguese producers chose to enter, I’m sure many of their wines would be featured.

There was an MCC made from Arinto, Ferna Pires and Chardonnay for four Euros – let’s say R60 – that would knock spots of many a Cap Classique

while the whole range from Paço das Cortes offers extreme value. No wonder 20 containers of one brand are shipped annually to Luanda.

How impressive to see diplomatic support with the Consul General of Cape Town present and also returning for a Peri-Peri Party in the Pavilion last night

while in Johannesburg the previous evening we had both the Consul and Ambassador.

Quite a change from the behaviour of the SA government. But then the Portuguese have a silly notion that diplomats should be the servants of the people, not the baas, as is the case in SA.

And also worth noting that the Lisboa Appellation paddles its own barca and does not wait for ViniPortugal to sell their wines. VP are kept busy entertaining those same UK scamsters who have hypnotized WOSA. Appellation specific marketing is a lesson for SA producers as WOSA fumbles and bumbles along in a cloud of genial incompetence.