Wine Diva

I recently had wine by the glass at the Dros. It was served in a small round-bowled generic wine glass and came straight out of the box. Not exactly my cup of tea. Since it’s the only wine by the glass available at the Dros and I was meeting my brother there and I really felt like a glass of wine and didn’t want to order a whole bottle of something else more drinkable, I remembered a trick that Bruce from African Story Tours, an excellent Cape Winelands tours operator, told me about the other day. He said that if I ask for a carafe to decant the wine or another empty glass to use to aerate the wine by pouring it (carefully) a few times from the one glass to the other, it would make the world of difference and the “plonk” I had ordered should taste 3 times as good. So I tried it and it worked. The wine was definitely more palatable and less abrupt.

Not only are these ideas economical but they are also very ecofriendly.

Firstly remove plastic seals and labelling by soaking in hot soapy water (use biodegradable dish washing liquid). You may want to save screwcaps if you want to seal bottle again depending on how you plan to “recycle” it…

Buy some awesome long-stemmed artificial flowers from home store such as Mr. Price Home, pop them in your empty clean wine bottles and it makes a great economical home accessory, get well gift for a sick friend or simply to cheer up your office workspace.

Buy 2 wine bottle closures, can usually find fun and colourful ones at the crazy store for about R8 for two. Or choose bottles with screwcaps. Take two clean empty wine bottles. Fill one with olive oil and the other with balsalmic vinegar. Makes great salad dressing dinner table duo for parties and braai.

Similarly empty wine bottles can be filled with bubble bath or body lotion. Personalised labels made and deocrated with some raffia or ribbon. Stunning gifts and stylish useful bathroom accessories. Bottles with srewcaps work best.

Use a clean empty wine bottle with screwcap closure to store your fridge water.

Get creative with stained glass paint, fill with glass beads or small semi-precious stones and use as windowsill decor, door stops or candle holders, or pair with colourful candles and give as a gift.

Message in a bottle – a unique way to give a greeting. Type out your birthday or Christmas message, pop it into the empty wine bottle which you have decorated with stained glass paint and voila.

This sexy little pink number should be scooped up and enjoyed with your girlfriends as an entree to the new long-awaited (yay yay that they made it) Sex and the City movie which has just been released worldwide. I’ll let you know next week what I think of the movie but I am planning on loving it and I don’t think it’ll disappoint.

Ok, back to the Rosé, which has also just been released and is available at most big outlets such as Makro, Spar, Ultra.

This rosé is very SJP and a good substitute for us wine divas that may not want to be quaffing cosmopolitans. It’s updated packaging and screw-cap are pink all over like my website and as we know, pink is for girls! I suggest it’ll probably go well with any spicy or comfort foods prepared this winter such as curries, stews, prego roll, sweet and sour pork or chicken, should love stirfries and pastas… leave a comment and let me know what worked for you.

The Backsberg winemaker, Guillaume Nell, made the following notes about the wine: Refreshing palate with flavours of raspberry, strawberry and peach. A well-balanced slightly sweet wine with fresh tropical fruit aromas and crisp acidity. This quality rosé is elegant and feminine. Drink immediately and enjoy chilled with cheese, cold meat, poultry, pasta or just solo.