DAVE BIGGS ON HOW TRUE LOVE

Love in a time of lockDown

Dave Biggs on how true love always wins

True love conquers all. Not even the worst pandemic in living memory has managed to separate true wine lovers from the object of their affections. In spite of liquor stores being temporarily closed earlier this year, I heard of no wine lovers actually having to go without their favourite drink.

I know what they mean when they say, “love will find a way.” When the lockdown on alcohol sales was imposed many distraught wine lovers rushed to their store cupboards and made gloomy calculations—pointless calculations, actually, because nobody knew how long the lockdown would last.

When the pointlessness became clear the address books came out and wine lovers began searching through their lists of wine-producing contacts in case there were any favours to be repaid. “Ah, yes. I gave Frikkie a lift home after that great celebration last August when he was unable to find his car keys. Maybe he’ll have a few cases of Sauvignon Blanc he needs to get rid of.”

One by one favours were called in and to be quite honest, the winemakers weren’t complaining. They were suffering just as much as the rest of us from lack of sales. A flourishing under-the-counter wine trade quickly grew up. Unlabelled wines changed hands daily.

The main difference between this situation and normality was that the Receiver of Revenue was left out of the sly, Covid-19 economic equation. Wine conversations changed. Instead of saying proudly: “This is the 2017 vintage of their Merlot and it won two gold medals,” people said, “I got this dry red from Sam who knows the brother of a winemaker in Robertson. I think it’s pretty good. Especially at R50 a bottle.”

There was an interesting side issue to this illicit trade; when you bought unlabelled wines you couldn’t be impressed by big-name labels or clever advertising campaigns. Drinkers became more honest. “I don’t know who made this blend, but I really like it.” Or: “I got this from Steve’s brother who is a friend of the winemaker. It’s a bit rough and tannic, but it’s cheap and you can’t be choosey in these tough times.”

It seems almost a pity to return to the “real” world, where clever advertising and elegant labels can cloud your judgment and persuade you to spend big money on inadequate wines.

This is why the Wine-of-the-Month Club provides such an important service. Every Monday the judging panel tastes a selection of up to 80 wines, identified only by numbers. From these, the best examples of each category are selected— with no information on the label or price of the sample.

The judges are all experienced and the wines compete on quality alone. Only the vintages and alcohol levels are revealed. The top-scoring wines in each category are sent to club members.

If there’s one message to be gained from the Covid-19 lockdown it is that the wine fraternity is a loyal and closeknit family and whatever happens in the rest of the world, we members of the wine family will stick together to ensure nobody goes thirsty. Heaven forbid!