The Wine Show Extra August Edition 2010

9th Edition

Bubbles and baguettes at the Bastille Festival!

Every year there are two events that make their way into my diary well in advance. I start making my arrangements way ahead of time with regards to travel, accommodation and even what to wear and would probably attend in a wheelchair if I really had to!

Last month saw one of these events… the Franschhoek Bastille Festival and, as ever, I wasn't disappointed.

For the last four years since my return from the UK, I've been attending the Bastille celebrations religiously in what is surely one of my favourite South African towns.

I set off early so as to avoid traffic into Franschhoek, and had a divine breakfast at 'The French Connection' to line my stomach for the day ahead, because we all know how these days pan out, especially when there's lots of "bubbles" involved!

After a lovely mosey around the town I made my way to the food and wine marquee, which I was glad to see, had grown significantly this year. I'd decided to start slowly and just pace myself as it was undoubtedly going to be a long day… yeah right!!!

All of my favourite wine farms were represented on the day: La Motte , Haute Cabriere , Graham Beck, L'Ormarins, Grande Provence , Leopard's Leap, Rickety Bridge and loads more.

So, in the spirit of 'ze French' a nice group of us got together in the glorious winter-sun to eat, drink and be VERY merry! There was an amazing live band playing some excellent tunes in the marquee tent and the punters were getting into it quite nicely at one stage, with some dancing and general silliness taking over.read more

Boutique and smaller producers were in force at The Wine Show this year. And judging by your feedback in our visitors survey they are a welcome edition, with many of you enjoying the adventure of buying and drinking those lesser known (but made with love) wines.

One such producer is Mellasat. This tiny farm, nestled beneath the dramatic Klein Drakenstein mountains in Paarl dates all the way back to 1693, but was bought and renovated by Stephen Richardson in 1996. Just over a decade on and there are some really exciting wines being produced across the range.

It can be argued that Mellasat was indeed the first producer to commercially release a white pintoge (affectionately named "Sigma") from the 2007 vintage. It proved very popular indeed, selling out quickly and affording the vineyard the ability to effectively start selling the 2008 "en primeur". A multitude of awards have found themselves praising their flagship "M" (which was even requested by the props department on a recent James Bond movie) a luscious red blend, and their Dekkers Valley label offers superb value for money drinking.

We decided it was time to send in the Taste Team to find out how good these wines are, and how they stack up against the thousands of competitors in the market.

The line up took them through the current "quaffer" releases, stopping in on the premium wines along the way. The "Sold Out" 2008 Sigma (white pinotage) was graciously added to the line-up by Robyn (and boyfriend) who had been stashing a few bottles for just such an occasion. read more

Click here to meet the team

We recently stumbled upon a fresh and cheeky wine-blog (we know, we know, there's far too many of them…but this was genuinely amusing) authored by a Harry Reginald. Here he's having an amusing pop at the recent Shiraz Challenge results and the inevitable squabbles between wine journo's that follow.

Ex Wine magazine Editor, Christian Eedes has also joined the ranks of wine-bloggers with "What I Drank Last Night". At time of writing, Wine Extra was interested to read Christians report on tasting a Fleur Du Cap (voted one of visitors favourite stands at this years The Wine Show) Cab Sav 1986. Not too much detail on the taste of the wine(s), but we had great fun reflecting on the 24 yrs that have passed since '86 and what our hairstyles were like during that vintage!

Nothing to do with wine, but reflecting on Christian Eedes 1986 Cab Sav review (above) we felt compelled to revisit that years best selling single (according to the UK Charts) "Don't leave me this way" by The Communards to enhance our trip down memory lane and couldn't help but ponder the possible irony with the change in editorship at Wine mag.

Jeanri-Tine van Zyl of Wine magazine takes an interesting trip to Namibia to discover vines, and wines, growing in the desert. The stories are fascinating, and the characters themselves full of depth and life (although we got the impression from the lack of "reviews" that the same cannot be said of the wines themselves!

www.goodfellas.co.za

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