Tom and Melody’s wine blog

This delicious Sebeka Cabernet Pinotage 2006 from South Africa is a fruit forward wine with notes of blackberry and herbs accompanied by black earth, smoke and acidic undertones. This dark red wine is medium bodied with grippy tannins. Tom purchased this wine for under $10 and we feel it is an excellent-valued wine.

Tonight, I taught the final class of an eight-week graduate-level course in educational leadership. I will sincerely miss my students because they were intelligent, passionate, and perceptive. I loved every single one of them. They invited me to the bar to celebrate the end of our class, but I did not join them because I have an early-morning meeting tomorrow. However, this “clink” is to them . . . and I’ll tell you each of their names from memory as I picture each and every student tonight.

Here’s to you Emily, Lisa, Paula, Michael, Emma, Melissa, George, Scott, Jennifer, Kathryn, Karen, Matt, Amy, Jason, Brian (yes, I am visualizing you as you sit in the classroom from right to left). Cheers to you and congratulations to you for finishing the Organizational Theory class!

This Zaràfa Pinotage 2007 from South Africa is full bodied, lively, full of berries, smoke, and pepper, with notes of bananas and pineapple. Long lasting on the tongue. We are finishing this bottle, which we opened the other night.

We have had a fabulous weekend getting ready for Thanksgiving. Guests bedrooms are fresh and clean, groceries are purchased, candles are everywhere — we are ready!

Tonight I have made a very simple meal of goulash. I browned hamburger and onions in the cast-iron skillet, added beef broth and chopped tomatoes, brought to a boil, and then added elbow macaroni. We will have this with steamed broccoli. It just seems like an appropriate meal for the Sunday prior to our Thanksgiving feast.

Our friend Richard told us that he has discovered an excellent pinotage: Fairview Pinotage 2005. Richard mentioned that Pinotage is becoming his favorite varietal and that an advantage of pinotage is that it peaks sooner than other varieties and so a 2005 may be at its peak. We’ll be on the lookout for this.

After Richard’s recommendation of Hill and Dale Pinotage, we set out to find one. We did not find his recommendation but did find this South African version by Nederburg. The first sip explodes with fruit, but it feels much different than an Australian fruit-forward red. It has a thinner texture and a woody aftertaste. The aroma is of raspberries and it has a long and satisfying finish. The tastes of vanilla and wood linger long after you swallow. There is something about this that reminds me of the Shady Lane pinot noir that we bought in the Leelanau Penninsula in Northern Michigan. This pinotage is refreshing and bold. Very easy to drink.

Tom: This has an interesting, cabernet-like taste. Tannic. Some berry fruit flavor, but reserved, not jammy. Strong taste of alcohol (13.5%). In some ways a similar taste to the cabs we’ve been drinking, but obviously a different varietal from a different part of the world. We’ll have to look more into pinotage.

Our friend Richard wrote us that that he was impressed with a Hill & Dale Pinotage 2003 from South Africa. His notes are: “Earthy, oaky, and really distinctive.”

Richard spotted that The Boston Globe listed this wine as a best value from around the world at under $10. We haven’t tasted it but we will definitely be on the lookout for it.