Life Of Riley: According to Bacchus

August is upon us now and much wine has flowed since we last provided GMC readers with our current tips and experiences around affordable wines out there.

Sadly, we were aiming to continue providing worthwhile information and tasting notes on value wines available at under R25 per bottle but alas, recent months have evidenced the rampant explosion of inflation within the Transport, Beverage and Electricity utility-services, having a huge effect on the cost of wine manufacture, its correct storage cooling and the transportation rates from the Cape to Gauteng.

With this in mind, we have been obliged to raise the cost-and-value bar up a couple of notches to R35 per bottle, to at least maintain an acceptable standard of wines that are available.

On the Wine Reviews Page we list some excellent examples of white and red wines we have recently tasted and can attest to, that in the bulk-buy category (six or more bottles) are well worth the purchase and are below the R35 P/B benchmark.

Yours in imbibing,

Bacchus.

PINOT NOIR
Fruit Influence (Taste)	Bottle Age (On the Nose)
Stewed Plums	Oaky
Rhubarb	Fresh hay
Blackberry	Barnyard
Beetroot	Bacon Fat
Black Cherry	Dark Chocolate
Cranberry	Old Leather
Lavender	Tabacco Leaf
Plum	Cloves
Dried Flowers	Mocha
Musk	Truffle

SHIRAZ (Also known as Syrah)
Fruit Influence (Taste)	Bottle Age (On the Nose)
Black Cherry	Cigar box
Aniseed	Barnyard
Blackcurrant	Coffee
Black Pepper	Stewed Prunes
Cloves	Red Meat
Black Olive	Earthy
Raisins	Nutty
Eucalyptus	Mushrooms
Spicy	Dark Toast
Pencil Shavings	Coconut

MERLOT
Fruit Influence (Taste)	Bottle Age (On the Nose)
Beetroot	Bacon
Cherries	New Leather
Floral	Tabacco Leaf
Fruitcake	Truffle
Herbaceous	Cashew
Plum	Coconut
Stewed Rhubarb	Toffee
Musk	Cedar
Mulberries	Caramel
Stewed Plums	Sawdust