Pendock Uncorked
South Africa's leading independent drinks commentator...
URL
Last update
7 hours 39 min agoNovember 20, 2008
22:00
Lars and Miss World
Lars Morgan runs the innovative Morgan’s Wine Store in the Tygervalley Centre. I interviewed him in the Sunday Times at the end of July about his bugbear. His answer was refreshingly honest: “Recently I read an article where [pundit and importer] Mike Fridjhon is praising JP Chenet Merlot for great quality and price, [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Lars and Miss World", url: "http://blogs.thetimes.co.za/pendock/2008/11/20/lars-and-miss-world/" });
Categories: Wine & Beverage News, Wine Blogs from South Africa, Wine Blogs in English
04:28
What’s in a name?
Did you mean “Zonnebloem Michael Buccholz”? Asks Google of the wine hack researching a story on the new Limited Release wines from Zonnebloem. Google’s confusion is to be expected as the Distell website lists it both ways. But then Google itself is a misspelling of googol, that famous large number starring one hundred [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "What's in a name?", url: "http://blogs.thetimes.co.za/pendock/2008/11/20/whats-in-a-name/" });
Categories: Wine & Beverage News, Wine Blogs from South Africa, Wine Blogs in English
November 18, 2008
12:00
Flying Springboks prefer Whisky
Flew down to Kelvin Grove for lunch to mark Philip Jordaan’s 25th anniversary as cellar master at Du Toitskloof. November Sawubona, in flight magazine of the national airline, looks like a whisky brochure. Feature on Northern Ireland and Bushmills and a glossy spread on the recent Whisky Live Festival. Nothing on wine. [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Flying Springboks prefer Whisky", url: "http://blogs.thetimes.co.za/pendock/2008/11/18/flying-springboks-prefer-whisky/" });
Categories: Wine & Beverage News, Wine Blogs from South Africa, Wine Blogs in English
November 16, 2008
14:12
Diners Club Forgiven
After last year’s fiasco at the Diners Club Winemaker of the Year Competition when I blogged that two judges had independently vouchsafed the fact that the winning wine was a seeded player parachuted deus ex machina style into the final round of tasting and went on to win the competition, it came as no surprise [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Diners Club Forgiven", url: "http://blogs.thetimes.co.za/pendock/2008/11/16/diners-club-forgiven/" });
Categories: Wine & Beverage News, Wine Blogs from South Africa, Wine Blogs in English
November 13, 2008
10:32
Does my bum look big in this?
The annual Vergelegen bash to launch the next vintage of V is such a sought-after ticket, many winos temporarily suspend their public sexual orientation [pso] to accommodate the needs of anoraquey friends. Thus well-known musical numbers arrive with beards in tow while testosterone spewing studs strut their stuff paired with thoroughly modern metrosexuals. [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Does my bum look big in this?", url: "http://blogs.thetimes.co.za/pendock/2008/11/13/does-my-bum-look-big-in-this/" });
Categories: Wine & Beverage News, Wine Blogs from South Africa, Wine Blogs in English
November 12, 2008
14:39
Howzit from Hyderabad
My fourth day in India and I’ve finally had a curry - well a Biryani (100% veg), to be precise, a dish Hyderabad is famous for. On Monday it was Chinese and yesterday Pizza. So much for globalization. Speaking of which, a kind By reader e-mailed a couple of letter’s to the [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Howzit from Hyderabad", url: "http://blogs.thetimes.co.za/pendock/2008/11/12/howzit-from-hyderabad/" });
Categories: Wine & Beverage News, Wine Blogs from South Africa, Wine Blogs in English
November 8, 2008
14:24
Some more pics from Neil’s big launch
As promised, some more social pics from my Big Launch while I’m out of e-mail range at my ashram in India. SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Some more pics from Neil's big launch", url: "http://blogs.thetimes.co.za/pendock/2008/11/08/some-more-pics-from-neils-big-launch/" });
Categories: Wine & Beverage News, Wine Blogs from South Africa, Wine Blogs in English
November 7, 2008
07:24
Whisky Live
Whisky Live was seething with wine life last night. Fast rising entrepreneur John Woodward of Jo’burg Wine Show fame was doing the rounds and gave me his tasting glass and tickets as “whisky makes me queasy.” And there I was thinking that “frisky” was the objective. John reports that several big guns [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Whisky Live", url: "http://blogs.thetimes.co.za/pendock/2008/11/07/whisky-live/" });
Categories: Wine & Beverage News, Wine Blogs from South Africa, Wine Blogs in English
November 6, 2008
08:51
Sour Grapes Launched
Sour Grapes, my celebration of the enthusiastic amateur approach to wine, was launched last night at the Book Lounge in Roeland Street, Cape Town. We decided to adopt a novel format with Emile Joubert, described as a “great controversialist” by Tafelberg’s Kerneels Breytenbach interviewing yours truly in front of the 100-or-so invited guests. [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Sour Grapes Launched", url: "http://blogs.thetimes.co.za/pendock/2008/11/06/sour-grapes-launched/" });
Categories: Wine & Beverage News, Wine Blogs from South Africa, Wine Blogs in English
November 4, 2008
17:26
Letter to Max
A call from Roelf van Coller who used to trade foreign currency for Transnet and who now more sensibly runs a guesthouse in Sedgefield with his wife, the beautiful Ronel. “I read your letter in Noseweek and see you’ve moved to Knysna.” Huh? Noseweek (acting) editor Max du Preez – a fourth [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Letter to Max", url: "http://blogs.thetimes.co.za/pendock/2008/11/04/letter-to-max/" });
Categories: Wine & Beverage News, Wine Blogs from South Africa, Wine Blogs in English
November 3, 2008
14:50
Good wine needs no label
The Pendock/Platter wine war was picked up on Saturday by By, lifestyle supplement in several Afrikaans language newspapers. With Afrikaans the lingua franca of the wine producing industry, this is a serious escalation in the war of words. My translation of Emile Joubert’s story: SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Good wine needs no label", url: "http://blogs.thetimes.co.za/pendock/2008/11/03/good-wine-needs-no-label/" });
Categories: Wine & Beverage News, Wine Blogs from South Africa, Wine Blogs in English
November 2, 2008
09:17
Bibulous Bugs w. Babelas
It was seventies filmmaker Jamie Uys who inadvertently launched Amarula as SA’s biggest international liquor brand. A brand worth more than parent Distel, according to marketing guru Jeremy Sampson. The marula-based liqueur with an elephant on the bottle achieved serious brand recognition after Uys’ smash hit Beautiful People starred a family of tuskers, [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Bibulous Bugs w. Babelas", url: "http://blogs.thetimes.co.za/pendock/2008/11/02/bibulous-bugs-w-babelas/" });
Categories: Wine & Beverage News, Wine Blogs from South Africa, Wine Blogs in English
October 31, 2008
08:35
Whisky Wednesday
Wednesday was Whisky Night in the shape of a grand five course dinner at Le Châtelat Boutique Hotel in Sandhurst. As the Highveld skies rumbled and flashed to the tune of a major thunderstorm, guests sipped Johnnie Walker Blue Label and made small talk in the fin de siècle (19th century, that is) splendor [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Whisky Wednesday", url: "http://blogs.thetimes.co.za/pendock/2008/10/31/whisky-wednesday/" });
Categories: Wine & Beverage News, Wine Blogs from South Africa, Wine Blogs in English
October 29, 2008
17:02
The tale of a nose
Talk about synchronicity. Sour Grapes is published on 20 October and the following weekend, the first lady of UK wine, Jancis Robinson, unburdens herself on “the most frightening period of my professional life” – judging last year’s Old Mutual Trophy Wine Show. Her elegantly crafted account appeared in the Financial Times. I [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "The tale of a nose", url: "http://blogs.thetimes.co.za/pendock/2008/10/29/the-tale-of-a-nose/" });
Categories: Wine & Beverage News, Wine Blogs from South Africa, Wine Blogs in English
October 28, 2008
07:52
Sample Scandal: great minds think alike or tip-off?
Being neither a regular reader nor fan of the Grape communal blog, it took a phone call from a concerned winemaker last week to point out that one of the troika editing that site was trading in what looked suspiciously like tasting samples for personal gain. The offer mysteriously disappeared from site as soon [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Sample Scandal: great minds think alike or tip-off?", url: "http://blogs.thetimes.co.za/pendock/2008/10/28/sample-scandal-great-minds-think-alike-or-tip-off/" });
Categories: Wine & Beverage News, Wine Blogs from South Africa, Wine Blogs in English
October 26, 2008
19:55
Wine Wars
Today’s Sunday Times carries the latest skirmish in an ongoing Wine War between champions of assessment through blind tastings versus sighted assessments by non-independent tasters à la Platter. The latest flare-up was in response to a libelous attack by a pissant associate editor of the guide in the current edition of Noseweek. In [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Wine Wars", url: "http://blogs.thetimes.co.za/pendock/2008/10/26/wine-wars-2/" });
Categories: Wine & Beverage News, Wine Blogs from South Africa, Wine Blogs in English
October 24, 2008
07:56
Spar Stunners
Lost in the MakPlatter controversy of confusing ratings and vintages is just how seriously SA supermarkets take wine. They have long been the national bottle store. This from the current vintage of the Financial Mail: SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Spar Stunners", url: "http://blogs.thetimes.co.za/pendock/2008/10/24/spar-stunners/" });
Categories: Wine & Beverage News, Wine Blogs from South Africa, Wine Blogs in English
October 22, 2008
23:01
Rubber Resolved
A resolution to last year’s storm in the spittoon where Jane MacQuitty, Tim Atkin et al. accused SA reds of reeking of burnt rubber. A US wine authority of mega gravitas and some writing talent, Jay McInerney, writing on Rhône wines in A Hedonist in the Cellar (Bloomsbury, 2006) remarks “Côte-Rôti typically takes [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Rubber Resolved", url: "http://blogs.thetimes.co.za/pendock/2008/10/22/rubber-resolved/" });
Categories: Wine & Beverage News, Wine Blogs from South Africa, Wine Blogs in English
October 21, 2008
11:38
Platter scooped by Makro
Makro, home of the “biggest wine deal in Africa”, dropped a small bombshell of sorts this morning when their glossy wine catalogue dropped out of my Business Day and scared the cat. But as Claude Cockburn said of the “small earthquake in Chile” – urban legend’s dullest headline ever: “not many dead.” The [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Platter scooped by Makro", url: "http://blogs.thetimes.co.za/pendock/2008/10/21/platter-scooped-by-makro/" });
Categories: Wine & Beverage News, Wine Blogs from South Africa, Wine Blogs in English
October 20, 2008
16:30
So-so Sauvignon Blanc
The superiority of BYO was confirmed by the results of the Tops at Spar Top Ten Sauvignon Blanc Competition announced last week. When the Good Value Guru and I hit the highway at the end of June, our favourite Sauvy was Adam Mason’s intense Perdeblokke 2007 from Klein Constantia. As we said at [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "So-so Sauvignon Blanc", url: "http://blogs.thetimes.co.za/pendock/2008/10/20/so-so-sauvignon-blanc/" });
Categories: Wine & Beverage News, Wine Blogs from South Africa, Wine Blogs in English
RSS | TOP
» What is RSS?