By Carrie Adams
In Chocolate: The Consuming Passion, Sandra Boynton tells us, “As with most fine things, chocolate has its season.”
I feel just the same about wine and with the gentle flutter of falling leaves just starting, I went in search of the perfect wine list for you for the next few weeks. Wine doesn’t just have its season, but more, every season has its wine.
John Keats would have us believe that “the poetry of the earth is never dead” and as I pulled the cork on a bottle of Iona Single Vineyard Kloof Pinot Noir 2018 and settled down to my new book over the weekend, I guessed Keats must have found that inspiration from just such a moment. Pinot Noir is a change of season wine and marries particularly well with good books, soft slippers, comfy sofas, content furry friends on laps and treats of choice on autumnal weekends.
In the BizNews shop at the moment, you will find that Andrew Gunn is the sole purveyor of Pinot Noir. Mr P is infinitely drinkable and extremely well priced for this normally rather-pricey varietal. It smells like strawberries (in fact, most red berries), cherries and sometimes cinnamon and dark rich soil. Its indescribably delicate when vinified to perfection and, as I have always said, will be the costliest love affair upon which you will ever embark. Good Pinot is addictive and cruel and once you have been caught, you will lie helpless in that trap, forever. Andrew makes three that you can choose from; get into the shop, take a squiz and press the right buttons. The single vineyard Pinot Noirs from Iona are sublime. A glass will typically be medium-bodied, with light, bright acidity; all cherries and raspberries, fringed with the spices of gorgeous old French oak. When done right, it lasts forever and each year adds a delicious ring of bright beauty to this lovely wine. Its rightful home is Burgundy but in our modern-day global village, it’s been successfully grown in a couple more corners of the world, South Africa being one of them. We make some fabulous Pinot Noir here … watch this space.
If you feel daunted or disdainful of this moody beauty, then try one of the rosés in the shop. I am finding that more and more we are making rosé in a slightly more serious fashion. Rather than just being that fun, summer-sipping companion, as many of us think of her, this category can ably don a power suit and entertain a bowl of lobster bisque on a good autumn evening. Sophie Le Rosé, Vrede en Lust The Jess (my favourite sip for sip) or the delicious Rosé from Wildekrans that is vinified from 100% Shiraz grapes. Try some of those during the autumn days that lie ahead. And look for those in-between recipes, too: sexy soups and sandwiches; pasta and risotto with twists; lighter dishes that finesse the best from our autumn wine choices.
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