ArtSpoken & Reviews
Tasting the Wade Bales Wine FestivalMoira de Swardt11/20/2009 09:47:45 
Moira de Swardt: An exclusive wine tasting event at Melrose Arch Piazza proves to be a lovely evening. Wade Bales is a wine merchant. The Wade Bales Wine Festival is apparently a legendary event in Knysna when the Oyster Festival is held. This year the first Johannesburg tasting was held at Melrose Arch Piazza on 19 and 20 November. Despite the unseasonable weather, about which most of the Capetonian exhibitors whinged (it was very friendly of Johannesburg to give them such a resounding taste of home), the attendance was good. The layout of the marquee was extremely rational. Entering, one pays one's R150 and one is given a glass and a platter of Fairview cheese and biscuits, then moving anti-clockwise one found the Taittinger table and then some 40 vineyards. In the centre were some more vineyards. On the far right of the circle nearing the end one found the olive products, the whisky and the coffee. The catalogue is a price and order list. Very slick. I missed the space for personal comments. After one has tasted quite a few one needs the comments. Even if one is spitting. The exclusiveness of the event made it easy to chat to the sales people, getting a guided wine tasting from each, learning what it is that makes that particular wine taste the way it does. A few months back at the Soweto Wine Festival Jacob Peu guided my palate in a tasting of bubbly. At this tasting I got to sample the Simonsig 2007 Brut Rose again, as well as a host of other local bubblies. The Quoin Rock Cape Agulhas Cap Classique at R125 for 750ml was the best of the local stuff. I did think the Taittinger Vintage stuff was better, but it comes in at over R500 for 750ml. It isn't four times as delicious. There is no way one can sample over 250 wines so I asked each cellar to recommend just one. Not one of them hesitated for a second. For some it was a white, for others a red, for a few it was their dessert wine. All were delicious and I hated to empty my glass after the briefest of tastes, but responsible drinking precedes safe driving, especially on wet, slippery, dark roads. My budget forbids wine purchases at the moment, but if I had the few spare bob I would have purchased the following:- Buitenverwachting Sauvignon Blanc 2009 - Husseys Vlei Klein Constantia Marlbrook 2007 Thelema Cabernet Sauvignon 2006 Quoin Rock Cape Agulhas Cap Classique The Vilafonte Series M was delicious but at R260 a bottle I probably wouldn't purchase it, except maybe for a very special occasion. I did a whisky tasting - the Balvorie - which was being guided by a young man with a lovely sense of the dramatic. I discovered that the splash of water does two things, it releases the aroma of the whisky and it prevents one's taste buds from being anaesthetised. I found this to be quite a fun part of the evening. Salute! Cheers! Gesondheid! Tchin Tchin! Prost! Or if one is at the whisky stand "Sangivor!" Moira de Swardt Freelance Journalist moirads@wol.co.za 011 482 7320 082 553 2457 |
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