JP Rossouw's Tasting the Cape.
This is a guide filled to the brim with great insights and useful information. It shoots from the hip. It’s just what you’d expect from the author who brings out the excellent Roussow’s Restaurants annually.
The book starts off with a selection of maps of Western Cape wine regions. The author says the book is about travelling to find wines.The wineries have been put into interesting categories; Grand Dames,Big Hitters,Corporates,Futurists,Individualists,Stylists and Democrats.
The descriptions are easy to follow.Grand Dames, for example, takes you on a visit to some estates with great heritage, the likes of Groot Constantia, Meerlust, and Buitenverwachting. In addition, Jean-Pierre has constructed a series of trails, food destinations, scenic options, architectural recommendations, bits of history, facts about gardens and art in the estates.
The guide is choc a bloc full of interesting insights. To dip in and out of this book would be to miss the point . Do yourself a favour and read it from cover to cover. Then you’ll feel as if you’ve completed a thorough induction on the Winelands and its wines.
Consider some of the following titbits.
South Africa’s total vineyard planting of approximately 103,000 hectares is more or less the same as just one of France’s wine regions, Bordeaux.
The highest ever rated South African wine in Wine Spectator is GS Cabernet 1968, which received an unprecedented 95 point rating.Made from Durbanville grapes, it’s almost impossible to find a bottle.
I like the solid practical advice best. Drink from a biggish glass and only fill glasses a third full to get the best appreciation of the liquid. Eat olives between glasses to sharpen up and refresh your palate. And finally, when confronted with a collection of wines or doing a tasting, drink the older wines,as they are more complex, before the younger ones.
This is the most useful book on wines in the Western Cape that I have come across. I can’t wait to put it to the test on a trip. Next week I’ll get that chance.
Tasting the Cape: Guide to the Cape Winelands. By Jean-Pierre Rossouw.
Published by Penguin. Price R143.00
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