My bottle of the week in The Times today shows that not all resources at the Mining Indaba currently underway, are non-renewable.

Holden Manz Big G 2012

How much and where?R195; www.holdenmanz.com

Why? If you turn the “w” of wine upside down, as you might very well do if you’ve been on the sauce, you get mine. South Africa is world famous for both and this trick of lexicography shows how easy it is to go from non-renewable resources to renewable ones. Which is exactly what mining financier Gerard Holden has done.

The larger than life deal-maker was on his Holden Manz wine estate in Franschhoek on Sunday, throwing an annual curtain-raiser for the mining indaba, currently under way at the International Convention Centre in Cape Town.

His best red is the eponymous Big G, a classic Bordeaux style blend of merlot, cabernet sauvignon and cabernet franc and is one of the finest reds to hail from Franschhoek, a region often used as a shop front to showcase wines made from grapes bought in from less fashionable appellations like Wellington.

This haughty red blend is very French in style, understated and full of finesse. But then the blend was put together by Thierry Haberer who performed some Gallic magic at the Johann Rupert end of the valley, at L’Ormarins.

Now all Big G needs to do is replace the elephant label with something that may be confused for a French château, the shorthand for luxury in the wine cellars of airport duty-free shops around the world.

Rating: *****

***** Big Lebowski

**** Big Bang

*** Big Ben

** Big Mistake

* Big Kahuna