Regular Harry on Under the Influence of Flavour Tasting

Regular Harry; wine writer, wine drinker, wine pervert! Check out his blog here. Harry attended the Under the Influence of Flavour tasting last night at Lexus Cape Town, here is his take…

The bar manager at my local looked at me strangely, “Umm, Harry,” he paused confused, “are you being picked up by anyone?”

“Of course dear chap, of course,” I replied haughtily, “has my driver arrived? Good show. See you later then.”

Girl in arm I sauntered out of the restaurant where James (OK well his real name is Justin, but it’s close enough) escorted us to the Lexus which would be taking us to the tasting.

You see Under the Influence and Lexus have become sidekicks in the wine tasting game. Some people might see this as a dubious relationship: Wine and cars? Drinking and driving? I see it as positive and completely in line with how I and Under the Influence see wine. Wine is not meant to be sniffed and daintily licked – well it can be, but it really is meant to be drunk. So last night I could comfortably ignore the spittoon and swallow happily; with the only worry about the drive home being whether James would carry on his small talk about gyms and me quitting smoking. Just drive James, no talking, just drive.

This was Under the Influence’s Wine Discovery Mini Course – strange having two of Lexus’s competitors in the title of the course I thought. Anyway, the aim of the tasting is for you to leave being able to think a little bit more about the wines you drink. This is a noble and virtuous endeavour for which much clapping of hands and praise should be heaped on the comedy duo of Allister Kreft  and his “beautiful co-host” Fasie Malherbe. These two bounced around the room guiding the group through the basics of smelling and tasting wine, and what the different smells and tastes can mean.

One of my favourite lessons of the night came from Fasie who explained that drinking a fine wine is like having a stripper prance around your tongue – at least I think that’s what I think he meant: That the wine slithers all around your mouth and has the end effect of arousal.

If this video is anything to go buy it might mean that Fasie is closer to Tassenberg than Cheval Blanc in the stripping department. Maybe he was in one of his, “Dream like Déjà vu states” that he had mentioned earlier.

The wines were as usual of a high very high standard. The first one – which seems to be Under the Influence’s favourite Sauvignon Blanc -- was the Iona 2009; who can blame them this wine is brilliant. It’s a sexy red grapefruit wearing over sized sunglasses and heels. Mineral and taught with typical cool climate expression. This one would definitely drive the White convertible on the showroom floor.

Things took a step up with the next wine, my favourite SA Chardonnay the Ataraxia 2008. This Chardonnay literally tells the Anything But Chardonnay members where to stick it. Backwards. The oak dances the tango with the fruit: intimate, delicate and balanced. Baked bread and honey with limes and a subtle sea salt edge lingered on my tongue. If many Chardonnays are flabby this one is perfect to balance on a tightrope in a size zero dress.

The oxidative Scali Blanc 2007 showed what happens to a wine when it is made (well, of course) in an oxidative style. You know what happens? It grows balls. A browned apple with unrefined sugar on the nose as well as Turkish delights, I mean delight – Turkish delights are something completely different. There was a linear mineral sensation on the palate, which made me slam my fist on the table and shout “Goddamn!” As you can see I liked this one.

The rest of the wines were reds and I am going to leave out some as I fear a list of tasting notes might become tiresome.

Fasie presented us with “One of the few nice Pinotages” around, the Southern Right 2007. You can’t argue with Fasie. For example after there were some grumbles about him telling a joke – some of the group had heard it before – Fasie gently reminded them that “It’s a kiff joke. Shut up.” I think the same advice can be given to those who don’t like Pinotage. Give them the Southern Right with its hints of white pepper and sundried tomatoes, and tell them to shut up!

In our last flight we had an aged wine; the excellent Grangehurst Nikela 2002. This led to an interesting discussion on the colour of older wines.

By this point in the evening there were many descriptions of tastes and smells that were interesting, humorous, and some that were downright unsettling.  Finding the Lammershoek Roulette to be like a dusty cherry was nothing special; Fasie thought that a wine was like the brine that Kalamata olives live in; Allister suggested that a certain wine reminded him of the right hoof of a Shetland Pony, and while he was on the right track Fasie and I decided that it was definitely more of a left hoof character.

As you can tell we knew we were being chauffeured home and swallowing was not an issue. I checked the spittoons: empty. This was a good thing for Fasie as he told us “The more I drink the better I look”. This also makes sense as to why Lexus agreed to driving us winos all home. I mean, I’ve bought some crazy stuff when I’ve had one or two many tipples. There’s a guy on Long Street who sells ‘boerewors’ rolls late at night. I have bought and consumed one of those. Something you can only do when rational thought has been taken hostage by the pirates of inebriation. Now a Lexus is no boerie roll that’s for sure, but it’s a far better way to check out cars than just popping by a showroom – which are normally as sterile as a hospital and as exciting as watching curling. This just goes to show that when something needs sprucing up you don’t need a designer, a social media guru, or a consultant; you simply need to add fine wine.

Another successful tasting from Under the Influence definitely enhanced by being able to wobble out and shout, “Home James! Once around the park and home, James” giggling all the while.