There are wine experts, and then there are people who like wine and just drink it to celebrate an occasion or for the enjoyment of sharing it with good friends. I am one of the latter – not claiming to know much about wine, I am learning as I go along and have the WSET Level 2 certification. I would like to think that I am beginning to appreciate the subtleties of each varietal and the delicate nuances of the terroir. Big words.
What I do know is that South African wines rate as some of the best in the world, and that makes me immensely proud. They compare well with those from California, Argentina and Chile, Australia and New Zealand, not to mention the French, Italian and other less well-known European wine-growing regions such as Bulgaria and Croatia.
I have tasted wine in most of the places I have been to and, generalizing terribly, in Greece, Croatia and Italy I found them to be more ‘every-day quaffable’ than ‘special occasion’. I am also aware that wine-tasting is a very subjective pastime.