Checking out hit-parade reds  13 May 2008

A top-ten line up enjoyed (with good steak) by Melvyn Minnaar

The problem with the hit parade is that there are always better-knowing sulkers who will disagree with the line-up. But even if you disagree that Sara Bareilles’ ‘Love song’ could ever be better than Jordin Spark’s ‘No air’, despite the popular vote for the present top of the pops, why shouldn’t one indulgence in a bit of listing fun?

With this in mind, top-notch car brand BMW’s call to witness a line-up of South Africa’s ten top red wines – and enjoy ‘the best steak’ accompanying it to boot – sounded a good enough reason to abandon Cape town, take to the skies and head north. (North is where there is so much money around, that paying whatever it costs, gets one the best wine to go with a steak.)

Fun, indeed, it was. BMW’s marketing boss, Richard Carter, is one of those people whose enthusiasm for South African wine leads to this: asking Cape Wine Master Junel Vermeulen to select and source ten fabulous red wines (the best of the last decade, even) and bring it to his favourite steakhouse (a very Joburg social thing), Owen McDonald’s Local Grill in Sandton, and have a couple of pals and a few media numbers check out the choice.

The first thing that needs to be said straight away is that for all the fashionable silliness these days of partnering chocolate and heaven-knows-what with red wine, there is nothing to beat a good piece of aged beef with cabernet, shiraz and any of their smart combinations. South African red wine and South African beef make great partners.

So here was the line-up, in an order which became increasingly tricky to evaluate as the food kept coming out and the noise-level of pleasure increased:

Kanonkop Cape Winemakers’ Guild 1997
Saronsberg Full Circle 2005
Fairview Solitude Shiraz 2004 [previously noted incorrectly as 2005]
Graham Beck The Ridge Syrah 2000
Kevin Arnold Syrah 2003
Vergelegen 2003
Le Riche Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve 2003
Rustenberg Peter Barlow 2001
Thelema Cabernet Sauvignon 1998
De Toren Fusion V 2002.

Obviously there was more than enough on the list to provoke argument. Where was the Hamilton-Russell Pinot Noir? or, yes, the pinotages and merlots, and maybe a Rust-en-Vrede, a few asked. But that simply made for good steakhouse talk.

For this punter, the stars were the slowly-ageing, deepening Kanonkop; the inimitable Vergelegen with its friendly complexity; the remarkable and densely perfumed De Toren (a case of a popular hit-parade number also appealing to the snobs); the smoky, Stellenbosch-idiomed Le Riche; the classy Rustenburg; and the simply delicious, aromatic Fairview (which showed up the awkwardness of most local shirazes).

* In case you wonder: BMW paid for the trip, the wine and the steak. And Richard promised it may be repeated in the Cape.