Out and about tasting pinks, fizz and elegant whites

At the time I was responsible for managing the South African Airways (SAA) wine selection (a role I ceased to play after 2001 – so those of you depressed by the present on-board choice are wasting your time writing to me).

 Through the kind mentoring of friends in France I had acquired a reasonable knowledge of the vast number of producers who owned vineyards in the Grand Cru appellations.

Accordingly I suggested to the airline a change of strategy: what followed (sadly only for a short while) was a focus, with its own selection process, on these artisan-made Champagnes.

For the past few years the South African market in "grower" rather than merchant Champagnes has burgeoned, so that this category of little-known brand names now comprises a significant percentage of the French fizz trade in SA.

This has had little to do with SAA – though it was certainly responsible for alerting business-class travellers that there was more to Champagne than a dozen or so big brands. It has mainly been the work of a Belgian, Jean-Philippe Colmant, and his wife Isabelle.

In 2002 they settled with their five children in Franschhoek and began distributing a range of these lesser-known (and substantially lower-priced) Champagnes, while their own Méthode Cap Classique cellar had yet to yield its own wines.

Now, as the 1995 Springboks chose to describe it, "the waiting is over": the Colmant bubblies have come to market. Of the two I tasted, the Non-Vintage Brut Rosé was the standout wine.

It has a lovely salmon-pink colour; a fine, creamy mousse; and shows bright, but quite primary, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay notes of raspberry and lime.

I suspect it would have been even better with further lees contact (a hint of "breadiness" would contribute complexity).

Still, pink fizz is for fun, rather than for pondering over. It was much better than the standard Brut Non-vintage which, though it had the vinosity lacking in the Rosé, seemed prematurely aged.

In search of context, I tasted the Rosé alongside the 2005 Simonsig pink (and the Brut Tradition next to Pongracz).

For the moment at any rate, the Colmant Rosé looked the better wine. While the Simonsig showed more of the yeasty notes which, for me, are the hallmark of the Cap Classique process, its bubble was more aggressive and its fruit less fine. However, the Pongracz edged out the Colmant Brut Tradition – cleaner base-wine and a properly managed bottle-fermentation.

Once I was out and about tasting Rosé – still, I believe, the fastest-growing category in the wine market – I found several on my racks awaiting sampling.

In this line-up the comfortable winner was the 2008 Delheim Pinotage Rosé. Screw-cap closed, fresh, fragrant dry-ish (rather than truly dry) but still food friendly, it had the edge over the 2007 Peter Falke.

I could still have used the latter as a meal accompaniment: it was elegant with quite savoury tannins – useful with salmon and also with poultry. Its acidity was less aggressive than the 2008 Seidelberg Shiraz Blanc de Noir (a Rosé by any other name ...) and the flavours purer, and more intense, than the 2008 Blaauwklippen.

I then added a couple of white wines to the line-up, and the La Motte Pierneef 2008 Sauvignon Blanc together with the Nederburg Bush Vine Chenin Blanc 2007 emerged as my favourites.

The grapes for the former come from Botrivier and the wine has the softer, riper flavours associated with properly matured cool climate Sauvignon. Lowish alcohol (13%) rounded, slightly tropical (but with a Semillon-like thatchiness) and surprising complexity, it is well worth tracking down.

The Nederburg Chenin was simply delicious: smoky notes, typical pear-drop and apricot whiffs, and enough acidity to mask whatever sugar may have been left after fermentation.

Plush and succulent, it showed exactly how far Cape Chenin has come in the past decade. Incidentally, the Platter Guide Superquaffer (best value wine) of the Year is the 2008 Simonsig Chenin Blanc – a worthy successor to the 2007 that won the award a year ago.

Next to the La Motte and the Nederburg the rest of the line-up was pretty pedestrian: the Kleine Zalze Cellar Selection Sauvignon Blanc 2008 is a little clumsy and not nearly as impressive as the Chenins for which the cellar justly enjoys a reputation.

The Two Oceans 2008 Sauvignon Blanc was sound-enough commercial wine, but I'd rather make the extra effort to find something like the 2008 Ingwe Sauvignon, if budget is the issue – or buy the La Motte, if quality is the sole criterion.

Finally I tasted the newly released 2007 La Bri Chardonnay. Showing lots of expensive oak at present, it has some lime-citrus notes beneath the creamy, butterscotch textures. It could be worth a flutter if you like them bold and polished: Brooklyn bred, but a Swiss-finishing school stint to tidy up the edges.