The Wine Spy assesses the grape and the good. The Wine Spy assesses the grape and the good.

The wine list is extensive and the staff are attentive, making a number of suggestions from the 21 pages of wines to choose from.

We chose the Kanonkop Kadette 2008 at AED 290 (US $79) — no horrible surprises with un-mentioned price additions when we paid either.

Kanonkop is next to Simonsberg Mountain in the Stellenbosch region of South Africa. Their vision is to be seen as the Premier Cru of the South African wine world — quite an ambition!

The Kadette is their second wine, so it gives a hint of these grand dreams without a price tag to match.

The wine was taken out of the lovely storage fridges at the end of the bar, but was a little too cold really and took a while to open up.

Story continues below
Advertisement

Once it did, I thought the wine was an interesting twist on the classic Bordeaux blend and this is because it is actually dominated by Pinotage along with the three Bordeaux varieties.

That blend gives it a more earthy character, but not rustic, as the Bordeaux varieties gives the wine generous cassis, black cherry and raspberry, backed up with soft ripe tannins, which really came through by the time we were getting to the end of the bottle.

After that it was time to go, and with a gift of a wine pourer each from the helpful barman, we went happily on our way.