Part I of our RECM Best Value Chardonnay public tasting went down at the Taj Hotel last night. 48 wines were on offer and the opinion was unanimous that SA Chardonnay offers way more diversity than Sauvignon Blanc, the cultivar featured earlier in the month.

No tasting next Wednesday as on Thursday Autumn Arrives. John Keats was talking about autumn when he called it a “season of mists and mellow fruitfulness/ close bosom-friend of the maturing sun/ conspiring with him how to load and bless/ with fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run.” I think it was grapes from such vines that produced the six Rieslings we’ll be featuring.

Mellow fruitfulness is the hallmark of a great Riesling and we see this expression in three wines from Alsace and three from the Cape. Maturation is essential for this most complex of all white wines and the examples from Alsace are well on their way to greatness while the South Africans are just starting out.

Our autumn arrivistes are

· Biecher & Schaal Grand Cru Sommerberg Alsace Riesling

· Biecher & Schaal Grand Cru Kastelberg Alsace Riesling

· Biecher & Schaal Grand Cru Rosacker Alsace Riesling

· Nederburg Riesling

· Lothian Riesling

· Hartenberg Riesling