Wineblog

By guest writer, Elona Nel

We all live for fashion, one way or another. Whether it be the clothes you wear, the places you go, the decor of your home, your savvy sports-car or the wine you drink. Chateaux Petrus, Dom Perignon and  Grange, have become the Gucci, Prada and Louis Vitton of the vino-world. And when a certain bottle is glamorised with some shiny, gold stickers, it is generally considered a good investment.

So when set with the task to buy wine, these ‘golden globes’ have made it a lot easier to choose – because most of the time we just trust the senses of others more than our own. Let’s be honest, when faced with a shelve sporting brands from anywhere remotely suitable to plant vines and names becoming more and more exotic, it can be a rather intimidating task to find what you are looking for.

Wine judges have a very difficult and important task at hand – to taste hundreds of wines in a short period of time and carry the blood, sweat and tears of hundreds of winemakers and cellar workers on their shoulders, by trying to successfully separate the cream of the crop. Years of training and practicing will put you at the best of your game, but the results are often still subject to a variety of influential factors, which ultimately results in human error – proving the results not all that reliable. The order in which the wines are lined up, the perfume (or lack thereof) of the person sitting next to you and even the mood you find yourself in, will all have a visible effect on how you score a wine.

An award winning wine may not even be everybody’s cup of tea – especially if you are actually looking for something to have at a braai tonight. Your average wine drinker, when faced with infinite possibilities, will probably go for an old faithful – brands you know and trust. Villiera and Fairview are two of my personal favourites. And why not buy what you like? The proof is in the pudding. Because it doesn’t really matter how much bling the bottle has, it is the wine that you are after and you have to learn to trust your own taste!

On a cold winter’s evening after a food and wine bonanza, a heap of empty bottles the sign of a successful night. As the last five standing, we found ourselves huddled around the fire, sipping wine and discussing everything from fashion to wine politics. The perfectly designed labelled bottles have been replaced by tank samples of unknown red wine and no-one seemed to mind that no catchy brand name, clever label or gold sticker was to be seen anywhere – because at the end of the day, it is just a bottle of wine shared between some friends.