RECM Best Value Pinotage

Well its totsiens Tawanda as one of our regular RECM Best Value judges heads off to Singita in Tanzania to serve Shiraz in the Serengeti. Can there be a better place to be a sommelier? Our RECM best value initiative is training more sommeliers than WOSA did for the World Cup as RECM judge Tom Magara now practices the dark arts in Kenya. WOSA must be nipping as the FBI investigation into FIFA and the 2010 SA World Cup bid proceeds apace for Su and Sepp have a lot in common.

Meanwhile WOSA are up to their usual tricks of hiring a UK celebrity chef (in this case Roger Jones) to prepare nibbles for the Wozani tasting in London in October. Why don’t WOSA management all remain in their plush La-Z-Boy recliners in Dorp Street, sucking Marie bisquits and send a SA chef like Bertus Basson along? After all, if the Country Club in Lima, Peru can fly an SA chef out for their Culinary Week in late November, why do we have to make do with expensive pommes? Former WOSA chairman Johann Krige is anticipated in Peru to present his Kanonkop wines.

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Johann’s most expensive wine is a Pinotage and I wonder how it would have fared against the three dozen tasted blind this morning. The top scorers were

Eagle’s Cliff Pinotage 2014 price R32.50 score 15.70
Clos Malverne Pinotage Reserve 2012 price R148.00 score 15.60
Wildekrans Barrel Select Reserve Pinotage 2013 price R242.00 score 15.50
Drostdy Hof Pinotage 2014 price R42.50 score 15.40
Vrede en Lust Artisan Pinotage 2013 price R115.00 score 15.30
The Dryland Collection Pinotage 2012 price R80.00 score 15.30

Taking price into consideration and the best value wines are

Eagle’s Cliff Pinotage 2014 price R32.50 value R242.00 score 15.70
Drostdy Hof Pinotage 2014 price R42.50 value R148.00 score 15.40
Darling Cellars Reserve Old Blocks Pinotage 2013 price R48.00 value R120.00 score 15.20
Obikwa Pinotage 2014 price R30.00 value R63.29 score 14.70
Rooiberg Winery Reserve Pinotage 2013 price R75.00 value R130.00 score 15.30
The Dryland Collection Pinotage 2012 price R80.00 value R130.00 score 15.30

so the question for the Peruvians is “what would you rather have. three dozen bottles of Eagle’s Cliff or one bottle of Kanonkop Black Label for the same price?

All the wines are available for tasting at the Pendock Wine Gallery between 5-7pm this evening. But bring along your own Black Label as the WOSA gravy train does not stop in St. George’s Mall.