The fine wine thread

I think I will have to print out this thread for next time I go shopping.
 
We had a gardener "addicted" to OBS. One day he arrived, but by 10h00 had fallen over on the lawn and I thought he was sick. Going up close I could smell this sickly-sweet smell. Went to look in his bag and there were 3 OBS there, he had already drunk 1 1/2. So I hosed him down a bit and he recovered but was slurring all day until I sent him home at 14h00
 
Fort Simon red wines is great. It is a small farm here on the Bottelary Road.
 
discovered a very nice little winery in Franschoek last weekend called Lynx, excellent wines although a tad on the expensive side, also if you want some really easy drinking wines look for Franschhoek Cellars, reasonable wines that aren't too bad
 
Absa Top 10 Pinotage Competition 2012

:D Durbanville x 3

The List of Top 10 winners for 2012
• Altydgedacht Estate 2011 (Durbanville)
• Diemersdal Estate 2011 (Durbanville)
• Durbanville Hills Rhinofields Pinotage 2011 (Durbanville)
• Painted Wolf Guillermo Pinotage 2009 (Swartland)
• Rijks Private Cellar Pinotage 2008 (Tulbagh)
• Simonsig Estate Redhill Pinotage 2010 (Stellenbosch)
• Spier 21 Gables Pinotage 2010 (Stellenbosch)
• Swartland Bush Vines Pinotage 2010 (Swartland)
• Wellington Wines La Cave Pinotage 2010 (Wellington)
• Windmeul Reserve Pinotage 2011 (Paarl)

Source
 
John Platter 2013 top results

Hot off the press. All the 5 Star wines, including Winery of the Year and Best Quaffer of the Year.

The new edition of the Platter Wine Guide was launched tonight at a tasting of all the Five Star wines at the Vineyard Hotel in Cape Town.

62 wines – more than ever before – received the coveted 5 Star rating with, remarkably, one producer (Cape Chamonix) garnering four 5 star ratings, three cellars (Fairview, Mullineux Family and Nederburg) each amassing three 5 stars, and a further six wineries (Boschendal, Fleur du Cap, Jordan, Raka, Sadie Family and Tokara) each raking in two 5 stars.

Twelve wineries received 5 star ratings for the first time, namely AA Badenhorst Family, Alheit, Bon Courage, Cederberg, Dalla Cia, David, Fryer’s Cove, Keets, Mvemve Raats, Nitida, Saronsberg and Von Ortloff.

The big winners:

Winery of the Year goes to Cape Chamonix Wine Farm, White Wine of the Year is Paul Cluver Noble Late Harvest 2011 and Red Wine of the Year is Mullineux Family Syrah 2010. Superquaffer of the Year for Best Value/Highest rated wine goes to Muratie Melck's Shiraz-Cabernet Sauvignon 2011.

Interesting things thrown up by the list include the fact that only one Cabernet Sauvignon was awarded 5 Stars whilst 3 Cabernet Francs made the grade – possible proof that SA really is making the most of this previously underrated variety.

Only 3 Sauvignon Blancs got 5 Stars but the number of white Bordeaux Blends confirmed again the importance of this variety when mixed with Semillon. A pleasing number of both Chardonnays and Chenin Blancs also got top marks this year, proving South Africa’s strength in these two varieties.

Surprise of the year has to be no 5 Stars for Boekenhoutskloof after their stellar year last year when they had three 5 Star wines, Superquaffer of the Year and were named Winery of the Year. Apparently there were nominations for 5 stars but the wines for some reason didn't make it through the blind tasting. Let's hope Marc Kent reaps consolation from the Diners Club Winemaker of the Year competition this weekend instead!

Platter 5 Star wines for 2013:

Cabernet Franc

Raka 2009
Von Ortloff Quintessence 2008
Warwick 2009

Cabernet Sauvignon

Delaire Graff Laurence Graff Reserve 2009

Pinotage

Cape Chamonix Greywacke 2010
Kanonkop 2010

Pinot Noir

Cape Chamonix Reserve 2011
Newton Johnson Family Vineyards 2011

Shiraz/Syrah

Boschendal Cecil John Reserve 2010
Cederberg CWG Auction Reserve Teen die Hoog 2010
Delheim Vera Cruz 2009
Fable Bobbejaan 2010
Fairview Jakkalsfontein 2009
Mullineux Family Schist 2010
Mullineux Family Syrah 2010
Raka Biography 2010
Saronsberg 2010
Simonsig Merindol Syrah 2010

Red Blends

Dalla Cia Wine & Spirit Company Giorgio 2007
Fleur de Cap Lazlo 2008
Keets First Verse 2010
Ken Forrester The Gypsy 2009
La Motte Pierneef Shiraz-Viognier 2010
Mvemve Raats MR De Compostella 2009
Nico van der Merwe Mas Nicolas Cape 2007
Sadie Family Columella 2010

Chardonnay

Boschendal Reserve 2011
Cape Chamonix Reserve 2011
Hamilton Russell 2011
Jordan CWG Auction Reserve 2011
Jordan Nine Yards 2011

Chenin Blanc

Alheit Cartology 2011
Beaumont Hope Marguerite 2011
Botanica 2011
DeMorgenzon Reserve 2010
Jean Daneel Signature 2011
KWV Cathedral Cellar 2011
Sadie Family Skurfberg 2011
Spice Route 2011

Sauvignon Blanc

Fryer’s Cove 2011
Graham Beck Pheasant’s Run 2012
Tokara Walker Bay 2012

White Blends

AA Badenhorst Family 2010
Cape Chamonix Reserve 2011
Cape Point CWG Auction Reserve 2011
David Aristargos 2011
Fairview Nurok 2011
Flagstone Treaty Tree Reserve 2010
Miles Mossop Saskia 2011
Nederburg Ingenuity 2011
Nederberg Sauvignon Blanc-Semillon Private Bin D252 2012
Nitida Coronata Integration 2011
Rall 2011
Tokara Director’s Reserve 2011

Méthode Cap Classique

Bon Courage Jacques Bruére Brut Reserve 2008
Villiera Monro Brut 2007

Dessert Wine Unfortified

Fairview La Beryl Blanc 2011
Fleur du Cap Noble Late Harvest 2011
Mullineux Family Straw Wine 2011
Nederburg Winemaster’s Reserve Noble Late Harvest 2011
Paul Cluver Noble Late Harvest 2011

Fortified Wine

De Krans The Last Cape Vintage Reserve Port 2010

Source: Food 24
 
Had pretty good luck with the WW branded reds in the 40-50 range.

I was given a 5 star wine bottle recently...somehow I doubt I'll be able to tell the diff between a R90 bottle and a R300+ bottle though. :(
 
Spar (Sonstraal CPT) currently have a 2007 "Kaymore" red for R20.

Its actually from Mellasat a smallish "upmarket" wine farm in Paarl.

Best R20 bottle of wine you'll get ;)
 
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Why We Can’t Tell Good Wine From Bad

http://lifehacker.com/5990737/why-w...rce=lifehacker_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow

The Misconception: Wine is a complicated elixir, full of subtle flavors only an expert can truly distinguish, and experienced tasters are impervious to deception. The Truth: Wine experts and consumers can be fooled by altering their expectations.

You scan the aisles in the liquor store looking for a good wine. It's a little overwhelming—all those weird bottle shapes with illustrations of castles and vineyards and kangaroos. And all those varieties? Riesling, Shiraz, Cabernet—this is serious business. You look to your left and see bottles for around $12; to your right you see bottles for $60. You think back to all the times you've seen people tasting wine in movies, holding it up to the light and commenting on tannins and barrels and soil quality—the most expensive wine has to be the better one, right?
You Are Not So Smart, But That's Okay

Well, you are not so smart. But, don't fret—neither are all those connoisseurs who swish fermented grape juice around and spit it back out. Wine tasting is a big deal to a lot of people. It can even be a professional career. It goes back thousands of years, but the modern version with all the terminology like notes, tears, integration, and connectedness goes back a few hundred. Wine tasters will mention all sorts of things they can taste in a fine wine as if they were a human spectrograph with the ability to sense the molecular makeup of their beverage. Research shows, however, this perception can be hijacked, fooled, and might just be completely wrong.

In 2001, Frederic Brochet conducted two experiments at the University of Bordeaux. In one experiment, he got 54 oenology (the study of wine tasting and wine making) undergraduates together and had them taste one glass of red wine and one glass of white wine. He had them describe each wine in as much detail as their expertise would allow. What he didn't tell them was both were the same wine. He just dyed the white one red. In the other experiment, he asked the experts to rate two different bottles of red wine. One was very expensive, the other was cheap. Again, he tricked them. This time he had put the cheap wine in both bottles. So what were the results?

Why We Can't Tell Good Wine From BadThe tasters in the first experiment, the one with the dyed wine, described the sorts of berries and grapes and tannins they could detect in the red wine just as if it really was red. Every single one, all 54, could not tell it was white. In the second experiment, the one with the switched labels, the subjects went on and on about the cheap wine in the expensive bottle. They called it complex and rounded. They called the same wine in the cheap bottle weak and flat.

Another experiment at Cal-Tech pitted five bottles of wine against each other. They ranged in price from $5 to $90. Similarly, the experimenters put cheap wine in the expensive bottles—but this time they put the tasters in a brain scanner. While tasting the wine, the same parts of the brain would light up in the machine every time, but with the wine the tasters thought was expensive, one particular region of the brain became more active. Another study had tasters rate cheese eaten with two different wines. One they were told was from California, the other from North Dakota. The same wine was in both bottles. The tasters rated the cheese they ate with the California wine as being better quality, and they ate more of it.
The Beast of Expectation

So is the fancy world of wine tasting all pretentious bunk? Not exactly. The wine tasters in the experiments above were being influenced by the nasty beast of expectation. A wine expert's objectivity and powers of taste under normal circumstance might be amazing, but Brochet's manipulations of the environment misled his subjects enough to dampen their acumen. An expert's own expectation can act like Kryptonite on their superpowers. Expectation, as it turns out, is just as important as raw sensation. The build up to an experience can completely change how you interpret the information reaching your brain from your otherwise objective senses. In psychology, true objectivity is pretty much considered to be impossible. Memories, emotions, conditioning, and all sorts of other mental flotsam taint every new experience you gain.

In addition to all this, your expectations powerfully influence the final vote in your head over what you believe to be reality. So, when tasting a wine, or watching a movie, or going on a date, or listening to a new stereo through $300 audio cables—some of what you experience comes from within and some comes from without. Expensive wine is like anything else that is expensive, the expectation it will taste better actually makes it taste better.

Why We Can't Tell Good Wine From BadIn one Dutch study, participants were put in a room with posters proclaiming the awesomeness of high-definition, and were told they would be watching a new high-definition program. Afterward, the subjects said they found the sharper, more colorful television to be a superior experience to standard programming. What they didn't know was they were actually watching a standard-definition image. The expectation of seeing a better quality image led them to believe they had. Recent research shows about 18 percent of people who own high definition televisions are still watching standard-definition programming on the set, but they think they are getting a better picture.

In the early '80s, Pepsi ran a marketing campaign where they touted the success of their product over Coca-Cola in blind taste tests. They called this the Pepsi Challenge. Psychologists had already determined you choose your favorite products often not by their inherent value, but because the marketing campaigns and logos and such have cast a spell over you called brand awareness. You start to identify yourself with one marketing campaign over another. That's what happened in the all the taste tests up until the Pepsi Challenge. People liked Coca-Cola's advertising more than Pepsi's, so even though they tasted pretty much the same, when they saw that bright red can with a white ribbon people chose Coke. So for the Pepsi Challenge, they removed the logos. At first, the researchers thought they should put some sort of label on the glasses. So, they went with M and Q. People said they liked Pepsi, labeled M, better than Coke, labeled Q. Irritated by this, Coca-Cola did their own study and put Coke in both glasses. Again, M won the contest. It turned out it wasn't the soda; people just liked the letter M better than the letter Q.

Why We Can't Tell Good Wine From BadYou look for cues from our environment whenever you find things you like. These clues help you to get back to the good stuff by recognizing the cues that got you the reward last time. For the testers, the two products tasted pretty much the same. So, forced to make a choice, they moved to another set of cues to make their decision—which letter was more pleasant. Apparently, M is better than Q, and in other research people tend to pick A instead of B and 1 instead of 2. Branding works the same way. Vodka, for instance, has no flavor. So advertisers can't sell you on how great it tastes. Instead, they hijack your natural affinity for visual shortcuts by pummeling your brain with advertising. When you are standing in front of all those vodka bottles in the liquor store, the brands hope their marketing campaign has built enough expectation in your consciousness to lead you to their product.

In blind taste tests, long-time smokers can't tell their brand from any of the competitors and wine connoisseurs have a hard time telling $200 bottles from $20 ones. When presented microwaved food from the frozen food section in the setting of a fine restaurant, most people never notice. Taste is subjective, which is another way of saying you are not so smart when it comes to choosing one product over another. All things equal, you refer back to the advertising or the packaging or conformity with your friends and family. Presentation is everything.

Restaurants depend on this. Actually, just about every retailer depends on this. Presentation, price, good marketing, great service—it all leads to an expectation of quality. The actual experience at the end of all this is less important. As long as it isn't total crap, your experience will match up with your expectations. A series of bad reviews will make the movie worse, and a heap of positive buzz can sway you the other direction. You rarely watch films in a social vacuum with no input at all from critics and peers and advertisements. Your expectations are the horse, and your experience is the cart. You get this backwards all the time because you are not so smart.
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There's a couple of bloggers down here who make some assshat "Master of Wine" into a religious icon. As in "he was the Cape's first Master of wine" He looks like a right piss artist to my trained eye...
 
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