Chenin Blanc – drink of the common man?

Lunch with Koekie at home yesterday was interrupted by a location scout wanting a closer look at the building. Was she seeking the epitome of Cape Town lower middle class suburbia (we do not reside in Bishop’s Court, Higgovale or on the Atlantic Seaboard but humble Mowbray)?

Well, yes, actually. Her brief was to find a suitable place to shoot a scene for a film version of Athol Fugard’s famed treatise on apartheid Master Harold and the Boys set in Port Elizabeth of 1950.

We were just coming to the end of a meal of spaghetti with chilli clams accompanied by a bottle of Rudera Robusto Chenin Blanc 2005, which until the visit from the location scout, I thought was at least bourgeoisie if not outright aristocratic.

The Rudera alone sold for R95 a bottle from the producer on release and received a rating of 4 Stars in the February 2008 issue of WINE magazine. It had all the palate weight to stand up to the heat of the chilli in the pasta sauce but had I known we were to be visited by a member of the film industry, I probably would have opted for much more in vogue Sauvignon Blanc…

By Christian Eedes