Soaring to new heights

Soaring to new heights

It's a seagull's life, but someone has to do it.

Now it's blazing hot, I'm getting loads of summery lunch invites. Loads, I tell you. Fantsy pantsy invites like wine on yachts, wine at chi-chi wine bars, wine with French sommeliers, wine with wine farmers and wine with tshisha nyama at Mzoli's. Goddammit, it's been hell, I tell you, and just this week I received another invite from Brian Beck.

 

Dear Suzy,

On a monthly basis I organise a lunch for a number of wine lovers in Johannesburg. We meet on the second Friday of the month and are all members of the Bacchanalian Society which has been in existence for 30-plus years.

The rules are simple: we each bring a bottle of wine which is tasted blind during the course of the lunch and we endeavour to identify it. Wines presented range from 1970 to date and can be imported or local. The lunch is an offshoot from the normal club tastings, with one exception: we're all pensioners.

The lunch is quite convivial but includes some serious wines. Our lunch today, for instance, featured a 1974 Nederburg Cab at Tartufo in Dunkeld.

Unfortunately we are all male but would welcome your attendance if you are in Johannesburg and dare to attend. Our club tastings take place on the fourth Wednesday of the month, and despite the chauvinistic nature, we would welcome you. Unfortunately we as pensioners (old farts) are technically challenged and do not have a website.

Regards,

Brian Beck

I am so becoming a member of the Bacchanalian Society! But before I sign up, I agree to spend my Sunday on a yacht sipping wine. And before I know it, a slick beast called Midnight Blue sweeps Amstel Adams and me away to drink with Oak Valley's Anthony Rawbone-Viljoen, he of gentlemanly charm and Gatsby generosity.

Oh, I do enjoy a fresh sea outing but I feel like a right royal snob when our yacht has to return to Cape Town's Radisson Hotel before lunch to collect our platters of sushi. It's not everyday that mere mortals like Amstel and I get to enjoy snuffling with the upper class. And how on earth will we ever return to our little shack in Tamboerskloof after spending a day on a yacht? Drinking Sauvignon Blanc-Semillon blend The OV on land will never be the same again.

And this is not any piddling little yacht either, but a giant double-storey splendid beauty that has been especially shipped from Australia for our very own yachting pleasure so we can sip the likes of Oak Valley Chardonnay 2008 in style.

"Tastes like good Champagne without the fizz," beams Amstel. "But doesn't most white wine taste like that? Or maybe it's because we're on a yacht staring at Clifton. Eating crayfish. Cooked by Peter Goffe-Wood." "Mmm, maybe."

A few dolphin hours later, winemaker Pieter Visser lies splayed out like a starfish at Gericke's Point clutching a glass of the wonderfully refreshing Oak Valley Sauvignon Blanc 2009. "I dived into the sea from the top deck last time I was on this yacht. I do think I shall dive again." But after another sip, he smiles a beatific smile and doesn't move an inch.

Meanwhile Amstel is having a private Titanic moment, arms outstretched Kate Winslet-like, leaning rather precariously against the last bit of metal that separates the yacht from the icy Atlantic.

We then flop elegantly about like famous people until the sushi is done, the beautiful wine is drunk and we've tossed the empty crayfish bodies back into the ocean. Aah, mine's a seagull's life for sure.