SA wines online tasting

It was a well attended tasting at SA wines online warehouse on Saturday with an interesting range of wines, the emphasis being on sauvignons and syrahs.

My favourites however were the Cape Point chardonnay and the Lourensford Winemakers Selection syrah.

They say they have the widest range of South African wines in the UK and that's certainly true for the sparklers and that's where my focus was - to pick up a number of sparkling wines to sample for my daughter's wedding. We've narrowed it down to the Simonsig Kaapse Vonkel brut 2007 and for a sparkling rose, the Graham Beck rose brut. The Simonsig really is excellent value for money.

Next decision is which white (a chenin maybe?) and which red ( a merlot?). Their next warehouse tasting is in May just prior to the LIWF when some of their winemakers will be there. It sounds like it will be worth a visit.

Felicity Lawrence's "Eat your heart out"

I've just read this book and found it depressing and absorbing.

One of the side effects of doing my WSET Diploma has been that I care much more about what goes in my mouth. Not only do I notice more closely what I eat, my senses of smell and taste are much heightened. I've also taken a closer look at where my food comes from and that's what encouraged me to read Felicity's first book "Not on the label". If you also care about what you eat and how it gets to your dinner plate you should read either of her books.

I was struck by the following when I read "Eat your heart out":

Next time you buy a branded breakfast cereal remember that typically
25 to 30% of what you pay will have gone on the costs of marketing to
you.

One privately owned business controls 45% of global grain trade. That's
an awful lot of concentrated power.

Although we all think of milk as being healthy over the last 60 years
it has lost 60% of its iron content, 2% of its calcium and 21% of its
magnesium content. Why? 'You are what you eat' applies as much to
cows as humans and with cows being fed much more processed food to
increase their milk production, this is one of the side effects.

Next time you buy a lovely looking pink rasher of bacon remember it has
been made that colour by potassium nitrate which the WHO says has carcinogenic side effects in humans.

Check out Salmofan TM a colour chart for farmed salmon colours - google it. In the wild salmon get their colour from the shellfish they eat. Farmed salmon have to be fed a pink dye!

Even our beloved wine is not immune. As consumer's palates have become
attuned to sugars in much of what we eat because of the level of processed food, so wines have had to become more intense, stronger in flavour and with more alcohol to make them widely appealing.

After I read Felicity's last book 'Not on the label' I increased my resolve to take more care with what I ate and where it came from. This book has encouraged me to do this again.