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THINK LAMB AND SAUVIGNON BLANC

No matter how great the food is, when it's coupled with just the perfect wine, nothing compares to it's greatness.

Sitting in the heart of rural Suffolk has given me a new view of Sauvignon blanc. I had the most superb green gooseberry fool, which followed a slow-roasted shoulder of lamb with herbs of Provence, large purple flashed bulbs of fresh garlic and shallots ( click here for the recipe). The gooseberries for the fool where poached with large floppy heads of lacy elderflowers that grow in profusion in the fields around the somnolent village of Halesworth.

British wine journos coined the phrase of Sauvignon blanc 'smelling of gooseberries' – green English gooseberries, that is. Some clever Australian suggested that Sauvignon blanc smells like cat's pee – hence 'cat's pee under a gooseberry bush', a well-used current description. In the first week of June, British wine writer Anthony Rose listed Excelsior Sauvignon Blanc 2001 from Robertson as one of his 10 best summer wines in The Independent Review.

It's in good company and at the bottom of the list pricewise – hooray for South African value. He says it's a 'vivid demonstration that South Africa is giving New Zealand a run for its money', and that it tastes of 'tropical fruits tinged with capsicum'. One of his other top 10s was also a Sauvignon blanc, the 1999 Cloudy Bay Te Koko, selling at three times the price.

Fun too to drink a really good Hungarian Sauvignon blanc: Riverview 2001 from the Sopron Region, where the Hilltop Winery, which overlooks the Danube, turns out a lively, lime-zingy and tangy gooseberry Sauvignon blanc with a crisp mouthful of exotic fruits.

My current favourite is Villiera Sauvignon Blanc 2001, which was also the favourite of Alistair Little, master chef from London who visited Cape Town in May. We served the wine with an array of frittatas Alistair prepared, one topped with tomato and fresh sweet basil; another with pan-fried courgettes and Parmesan shavings; and the third with tiny sautéed cubes of potato. Alistair uses a lot more olive oil than I would have in the past, but in future I'll definitely use more. The full-essenced fruitiness (ripe figs, especially) of the Villiera weighs well on the palate, with a strand of acid running through it supporting all this fruit – it perfectly complemented the flavours of the frittatas and the heady, warm olive oil.

The lamb would have gone well too with two Landskroon Wines I tasted before I left home. The Landskroon Shiraz 2000 is a crystalclear, almost see-through ruby wine with barbecued steak aroma and chocolate fudge taste, yet lean enough on the palate not to overpower your food; the round acidity and gentle yet firm tannins preparing you for the next mouthful.

This wine is a bargain at R37 from the estate. Landskroon Paul de Villiers Cabernet Sauvignon 1999 is made with grapes from nine-year-old low-yielding bush vines; the wine is made in stainless steel vats and then racked off into new French oak barrels. It is very earthy (like turning over a sod of soil in a forest), and also smells of baked mulberries and blackcurrants, turning to spicy mint and mocha – lovely long ending too.

Pick of the vine
Sauvignon blanc
To become a member of the ABC Club, all you need to say when offered a glass of wine is 'Anything But Chardonnay!' And then you'll in all likelihood fall hook, line and sinker for Sauvignon blanc.

Over the next few issues I am going to give you a kind of Master Glass of the different grape types. In this issue we tackle Sauvignon blanc. The grape makes up five percent of the national plantings – about 5 400 hectares producing 52 000 tons in all, of which more than 50 percent is planted in Stellenbosch and Paarl, with large plantings in Robertson and Malmesbury as well.

Mainly made in an unwooded style, best among them being the Villiera I mentioned, as well as Durbanville Hills, Bartho Eksteen, Avondale, and Waterford; there are some really yummy oaked Sauvignon blancs from Villiera (again), Jordan, Flagstone, Mulderbosch and De Wetshof.

You'll need to look for your own descriptors, which will help you to describe its 'samurai sword' attack on your palate. No gentle kiss here. The aromas… well, cats and green. I was walking past nettles and docks and brushed against them and smelt Sauvignon blanc. Flinty stones and asparagus and green peppers you'll find too.

In a hot climate it's a very fickle fruit and needs to be picked at the point of perfect ripeness, rushed through the cellar and out onto the shelves to be taken home for supper tonight. A product of our time, which reflects the rush in which we live. Fruit assails your nostrils, fruit acidity dives into your mouth and the taste whistles through; not many have an exotic tail. But it's a real refresher, and great food wine.