The People’s Guide, Navigate the Winelands in A Shopping Trolley, by Michael Olivier and Neil Pendock is a lifesaver.
This is because it’s there to help. Help in the complicated, confusing and Russian roulette game of buying wine in supermarkets.
Let’s face it, buying wine in the local Pick n’Pay or Woolies is a very hit and miss affair. There’s an overwhelming , even bewildering display. There are no noticeable tasting notes. No rankings of best sellers, like in bookshops. No help at all to guide the poor buyer through the maze of labels, colours, bottles, names, regions, varietals, blends and so on.
The only vague indicator of quality, (and very vague at that) is the price. Surely a R30 bottle will be a lesser quality than a R89.99 bottle. Right? Well, not always.
80% of all the wine bought in South Africa is bought in supermarkets, and 80% of the buyers are women like me. I snag a bottle on the way to get the frozen peas. Research shows that people like me spend about 30 seconds in the wine aisle. I personally spend about 10 seconds. Under R80? Check. Nice label? Check? Do I recognize the varietal? Check. Bang, in the
Is it good?
trolley dolly. Now, where can I find some fresh herbs?
But in the last few months my trips to the supermarket have been transformed by The Peoples Guide. I can confidently push my trolley up and down the the aisle and know that I’ll get a bang for my buck, but only as long as I have this guide clutched in my hands.
These wine tasters and experts have sipped, slurped and spat their way through 1,200 wines and brought 561 to my notice.
These guys are no wine snobs. Their notes are precise, colourful and to the point. And each wine note is accompanied by a helpful bottle shot, with a recommended price. You can’t go wrong.
Each section includes a “Coup de Coeur”, french for “blow to the heart”. This is where a wine made a special impact on the tasters. I love this addition.
The authors want us to find a decent glass of wine at a decent price. This guide is refreshingly upfront, lacking in any wine snobbery and it’s an essential guide for anyone who is serious about buying their wine in a supermarket and avoiding making a dud purchase.
The People’s Guide. Navigate the Winelands in a Shopping Trolley.
Michael Olivier, Neil Pendock with Anibal Coutinho.
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If people spent more than 30sec thinking about which wine they wanted, and when they got home didn’t mindlessly glug it down, the need for competition stickers and supermarket guides would probably be less.
I mean, to be honest if you only spend 30sec choosing a wine you deserve a crap one. Although that is quite hard to do today. You will more than likely choose a boring wine. Our shelves are full of boring wines.
Harry,
In an ideal world people should spend a half hour choosing their wine but hey, as I mentioned, 80% of the wine bought in South Africa is bought in Supermarkets by women. This means that wine is part of the grocery shop. The majority of wine buyers are not experts so that’s why they rely on commentators, guides, blogs and judges to point them in the right direction. There are hundreds of wineries, and thousands of wine labels. How much time has a gal got?? We don’t have time to hang about the wine aisle in Woolies or Pick n’Pay twisting bottles to read small print on labels!
So the fundis like you need to make our lives easier, as Messrs. Pendock and Olivier have done, by providing us with a usable quick guide to getting through the masses of labels.
And just because someone takes 10 seconds to chose a wine does not mean that they are going to “mindlessly glug” it down at home.
So you tell me Harry, what are your top three wines (white and red) that make for great value quality drinking?
Come on now! do let us know, I’ve to get out to do a shop and I am in a bit of a hurry. Can’t hang around all day in the wine aisle you know!
its a great guide for those who don’t have a knowledge about wine..