Tits Up for Two Great Wines

Meddling in the PR world myself, I take enormous pleasure in taking the piss out of other PR’s. Nothing serious ?+¦-+???+¦-ú?-¦?+¦-ú?+¦+¦ just a bit of self-deprecating fun we purveyors of image, reputation and freebies allow ourselves.
I also find myself on the receiving end of PR information for use on this blog, which I use from time to time.
Now, I know times are tough and the last thing I need is another bottle of wine. But what is one supposed to do with a media release waxing G-spot lyricisms on a product if said product is not anywhere in sight?
This has been the route most spirits companies have preferred as they are not too keen to fork out R350 sampling some hack with a bottle of whisky. Especially if their financial departments are headed by Scots. So the relevant PR would do the hit-and-miss thing, sending out a few paragraphs about a new whisky or vodka, hoping that said journalist would happen to have a piece of space just waiting to be filled with information on some product the poor hack had not tasted.
This strategy has slipped into the wine world of late, which is really very strange. Wine judging relies on subjective opinion, something that is not easy to deliver by means of even the most eloquently penned media release.
Upon hinting in this direction after a recent interchange with a communications doyenne, a bottle of Paul Cluver’s new Gew?+¦???+¦?+¦???+ærztraminer 2009 was speedily delivered. (By someone the female recipient thereof described as a “hunk”, by the way.)
With its cool forest climate and rolling mists, Elgin is of course the ideal place to grow this Kraut varietal. And the folk at Paul Cluver have always done an excellent job in harmonising the grape’s aromatic complexities and zippy freshness.
I wish to report, however, that the Paul Cluver Gew?+¦???+¦?+¦???+ærztraminer 2009 is stratospheric compared to the previous vintages, bordering on being a different wine altogether.
The first impression is one of glacier-like freshness, one of the most appealing features of white wine but an aspect not given enough attention. This is not a sterile freshness, but one reminiscent of clear blue lakes, cooling desert breezes and the thighs of well-kept Scandinavian woman.
Gew?+¦???+¦?+¦???+ærztraminer leans towards spice and some exotics, hence the term “Turkish delight” so often used when describing these wines. And yes, on the Paul Cluver there is a whiff of Cypriot flower stall and a slight nose of castor sugar. But only very slightly. so as ?+¦-+???+¦-ú?-¦?+¦-ú?+¦+¦ like a good perfume ?+¦-+???+¦-ú?-¦?+¦-ú?+¦+¦ to lift the nubile fresh flirtiness in the wine.
Basically I am trying to find reasons to justify the fact that a finished this bottle in just over an hour. It is such a delicious wine. Really. Bracing and wet; cool and splashy en life-affirming. Drier on the palate than the Paul Cluver Gew?+¦???+¦?+¦???+ærztraminers I remember, but in its exiguousness and lack of upfront, showy flavours it revealed itself as a lean and loving masterpiece.
Another really tit wine I had recently came courtesy of my mate Johann Krige from Kanonkop. No, it was not a Kanonkop wine, but one of Krige’s Muscadels he hauled out during an industry strategy meeting I had been invite to attend.
The Muscadel was KWV 1953, and we drank it in the Paul Sauer Cellar, surrounded by dusty old bottles, ancient walls adorned with lovingly inscribed graffiti and some of the South African wine industry’s most influential players.
The stuff poured into our glasses was as black as the honey Roald Dahl wrote about that had been made by bees gorging themselves on marijuana pollen, and just as heady.
What an obscenely seductive aroma of treacle sponge, coffee, cigars and old leather. On the palate the Muscadel was rich and decadent, the spirit of fortification having settled underneath to lift the fruit to a truly gorgeous level of complex and heady sweetness.
One of the best wines I have ever tasted. Ever.

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