A British court of appeal ruled a few weeks ago that the well-known Pringles potato snack is, well, a potato snack.

The issue, which has cost the large American producer of what is known as a ‘potato crisp’ endless amounts of money and many hours in various UK courts, had to do with tax.

What was terrible amusing,  was the many and complicated to-and-fro arguments made by the learned  parties involved about the simple, but famous snack. In his verdict, Lord Justice Jacob said “There is more than enough potato content for it to be a reasonable view that it is made from potato.”

Throughout the court cases,  there had been plenty or argument about the snack’s ‘potato-ness’. (Potatoes make up 42% of a Pringle.) At some stage P&G argued that their best-selling product was not the same as potato crisps, because of their ‘mouth melt’ taste, ‘uniform colour’ and ‘regular shape’ which ‘is not found in nature’.

With entries for this year’s Absa Top Ten Pinotage competition closing (late entries accepted until July 7, they say), parallel thoughts about ‘pinotage-ness’, etc. is likely to crop up.

Well, let’s hope it does, because, for all the progress that has been made in punting pinotage - and it is quite clear that there have been great strides in both vineyard and cellar to the challenge of this tricky grape - the ‘perfect pinotage’ still remains a chimera. This, poses somewhat of a conundrum in terms of marketing it as a USP. What is certainly not helping, are pinotage recipes of over-ripe grapes (and piercing alcohols), too much (wrong) wood, uncontrolled (or ignorance of its) ‘bitterness’, and often silly pricing.

Even worse, is the current fashion for pinotage tasting of (sweet) coffee - which brings very much to mind P&G’s Pringles argument about ‘not found in nature’.

With the worry of ‘pinotage-ness’ in mind, it serves one well to sample again, say, at the top-end, a Kanonkop (the 2007 is out) (8 000 cases of 12) and, on the other, the Beyerskloof (2008 is on the go) (an astounding consistent 120 000 cases of 12).

There is no doubt that, at both ends of the price range, these two fine wines have more than enough pinotage-ness to be considered, well, as smart pinotages.