Some new wine drinkers can be recognised by their hesitant swirls and apprehensive sips, while others are noticed for their gusto and Saturday-night-fever-dance-moves on raised platforms. Both archetypes come from a place of uncertainty and fear of potential social suicide.
Cathy Marston is the Food24 wine guru and a knowledgeable educator. She’s has quaffed and quibbled about almost every varietal under the sun. Her recommendation for choosing good wine to drink now (the statistic is that South Africans consume their wine within the 1st hour of purchasing it) is to use price as an indicator. Any white wine under R50 or red at R70 is ready to be shared as we speak.
Once you start tucking into your bottle be sure to take note of the colour of the wine. Hold the glass up to the light or against a white background and describe what you see. Once the decision about whether it’s a strawberry, garnet, straw or cloudy apple, swirl the glass and stick your nose into it. Allow the flavours to form pictures in the mind – berries, spice, asparagus, grass and stone fruit – take the time to create these “sense files”. And finally, take a sip of the wine. Allow the liquid to coat the entire surface of the tongue so that all the taste buds are activated.
Enjoy with good people and great food.
Thanks to @thelazyfoxes for loaning us Cathy’s logo design.
