South Africa is a bit of a blind spot in my wine rack and I occasionally have to remind myself that good wine comes from English speaking zones, as well and French and Spanish.

This wine is made from Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot in proportions 42:32:26 and spends 10 months in French oak.

On opening there was faint Hydrogen Sulphide but this quickly dissipated and left a passable impression of a decent claret.  At first it smelt deep, moody and just a tad yeasty with a raspberry rush.  First sip was raspberry, violet, and vanilla.  Far from being spoilt, it was bright, fresh and almost as exciting as a freshly powdered slope (snow I mean, not cocaine).

Eranu or Uvavu?  Ugaba Stellenbosch 2006 is £11.99 at Majestic and this represents good value.  ERANU!

But for 3 key suspensions, England might well have put up a fight, but what do I know?  I don’t have Sky Sports in the flat so I have had to suffer Wimbledon instead where sulky Scot/plucky Brit (depending if he loses/if he wins), Andy Murray, was on terrestrial TV playing in the latest night ever finish at Wimbledon (no football connection there – not any more anyway) against Stanislas Wawrinka, the more than plucky Swiss.

Bellingham “The Bernard Series” Old Vine Chenin Blanc 2007 is pretty plucky.  I thought Chenin Blanc tipped a wink to Blandshire, on average.  But this far from average example has more spunk than Murray, more intensity than Pearce and more grunt than Michelle Larcher de Brito.

Imagine peaches and cream but with some grapefruit slices added.  Not quite right but still quite nice.  A bit like a pig on a tennis court.

In a good night for Britain, Murray won in the 5th set.  Just about offset England’s hammering by the old foe/In a bad night for Scotland, Murray lost in the 5th set.  I think England did as well as can be expected against a well drilled, fit and fully available Teutonic plague.

For the record, Murray won – HOORAH!  I am not the world’s biggest tennis fan but what a tip top thoroughly enjoyable match.  I might follow the rest of Wimbledon now.

As for Chenin Blanc – next time you visit Majestic, expect the unexpected, the bizarre, the bold, the brave, the ever so slightly bonkers.

So I grabbed a bottle from Majestic (£7.99, or £6.39 for two or more bottles).  It is also available from Waitrose at £6.64 and other retailers at some price or other.

Although kind of peachy in flavour, it has the citrussy zing of a decent Sauvignon Blanc combined with the refined buttery taste of a decent white Burgundy.  Excellent with fresh Brie and a truly superb wine for the price.

It is pretty strong at 14% alcohol and the price is in the range that might make it attractive to tramps in the square mile.  Suited only to the poshest of park benches, though.  Hope that is not where you drink it, Peter?

I like Rowan and want to support his new venture but I can’t pretend that I like a wine when it smells of napalm.  Come to think of it, I have never smelt napalm but I imagine it to be a rubbery petroleum mixture.  Anyway, of the first two naked wines that I tried, one was good, one poor.

So with the scores level at the hour mark, can Bain’s Way nip into the penalty box and slot home the winner?

I think on balance this wine from Wamaker’s Vallei, Wellington, South Africa is the Didier Drogba of the Naked Wines team.  It certainly hit the back of the net for me.

The aroma was as far from napalm as it is possible to get – honeysuckle and peach blossom – fragrant and delicate.  The flavour is more melon, honey, brown sugar and crystallized ginger.  Full of interesting nuances but very subtle indeed.

A sort of “out of yer face” alternative to brash New Zealand Sauvignons perhaps.

So, 2-1 to Naked and plenty of wines now starting to appear on the website.  I’ll be trying some more from Naked soon, probably an odd mixed case here and there.  I am not sure that the Naked Wine Angel idea appeals to me, and I’ll be looking for the website to take several steps forward from its current clunky, bug-ridden and inaccurate incarnation.  But it’s early days yet.  I see Naked Wines moving out of the relegation zone before the end of the season.  If only I had the same optimism about Manchester City.

For example, at the time of writing, Virgin Wines has this South African on offer at £5.99 (normally £9.99).  If you subscribe to Virgin’s Wine Bank, you effectively get an extra 25% discount.  This is stonking value for money.

Rich and hedonistic with black cherry, leather and spice.  Slightly rough around the edges like your lovable mate, the diamond geezer, this Wellington beaut tastes much more expensive than £4.50.

Meanwhile the Bardot of grapes is unreliable, sulky, difficult to master, but if you woke up next to her you would reach for your mobile and ring in sick (well in her prime, anyway, which sort of proves my point).

But perhaps I am missing Peter’s point.  The intellectual challenge of giving a winemaker a blank canvas like Chenin Blanc could create a satisfying long term relationship, rather than a one night stand with some Pinot Noir or other, that leaves one feeling, frankly, used.  Sex delivers the shortest high of all drugs, love perhaps the longest.

This South African from Western Cape is a bit one dimensional, actually, although quite sexy.  Maybe more Uma Thurman than Barbara Streisand.  Pure pear juice with an unusual and slightly flat acidity.  It leaves the same sort of taste on your tongue as licking both electrodes of a 9v battery.  But that is actually quite alluring and sort of explicit like hardcore pornography, and for only £6.17 per bottle, it seems like a very cheap high.

I am not going to give up Pinot Noir, but I do promise to try more Chenin Blancs.  Thanks, Peter, for alerting me to a new type of fun.  A third way….

Dassen View 2007 Chenin Blanc came to me from the Sunday Times Wine Club crisp refreshing whites case (£60).

If you are still reading, you must be new to this blog, or you would have laughed out loud and moved onto your favourite sports website.  Just in case any of my investors are reading this, I would just like to clarify that I am indeed taking a humble sojourn, walking around Swiss mountains in nought but sackcloth shoes whilst taking the time out to think through our next business plan.  I will probably take a refreshing dip in mountain lakes, perambulate vigorously and get pissed a lot on the local wine.

Meanwhile, I write this note as I pack for the trip.  And in practice for getting pissed on the local wine I am drinking Kloovenburg Shiraz 2002 from Swartland.  It just so happens that Kloovenburg translates roughly as place in the ravine which is one of the more tenuous links that could be found between the Swiss Alps and South Africa (apart from the initials matching).

Just in case you are interested in the wine, it tastes, to me, of leather and cloves with undertones of bilberries and hazel nuts.  At 15% I was expecting a jammy new world blockbuster but it was not really new world style at all.  Is this wine proof that it is possible to create a high alcohol wine that doesn’t have to be “in yer face”?

Suprisingly refined, I recommend it, especially with spicy pasta.  I have had very mixed experiences with S.African wines.  This was one of the high points.  Although not ranking besides Nelson Mandela’s release, I would climb a small hill to taste another bottle.

On a summer’s day you can sit outside and enjoy a cool glass of Chardonnay “False Bay” 2005 as I did.  £4.75 for a glass, £17.95 a bottle.  I found the 2006 at Everywine at £5.77 so the markup is probably about right for that part of town.

Freda ordered a mineral water with lime cordial which came in a little jug - nice touch.  It gave me the opportunity to check my initial impression of this wine – lime, lime and lime flavours.  Fortunately it tasted more like fresh lime than lime cordial.  A pretty basic wine, presumably mass produced in South Africa, but nonetheless lovely to drink outside on a warm sunny day.

Meanwhile, inside Koha there is a new basement bar that looks very funky for evening and winter entertainment.  I’ll be going back to check this out another time, and I’ll be aiming for the food menu.

The owners apparently left Kosovo for London during the troubles and were students of architecture and interior design.  I presume they are reponsible for the design of Koha where they have achieved something smart yet rustic, something funky yet mature, something with great attention to detail that looks at the same time very casual.  I really like it.

Koha Restaurant & Bar, 11 St Martin’s Court, London.  WC2N 4AJ  T: 020 7497 0282  F: 020 7836 5179  E: bookings@cafekoha.com. W: www.cafekoha.com

Man City invites a European team over at the start of every season for the “Thomas Cook” trophy.  Some would say that this is the only chance we get to watch any European football and I have sympathy with that view.  Valencia were the opponents on this occasion.

City lined up in a 4-4-2 formation, a welcome change to the dire 4-5-1 inspired home performances of last season that resulted in only 10 goals all season.  However, even as pre-season friendlies go, this turned out to be amongst the most non-eventful.

There were less substitutes than one might have expected from a Sven-Goran Eriksson friendly and most of the changes came from Valencia.  The pick of our new players for me were Geovanni and Gelson Fernandes.  I also liked Bianchi who rattled one header against the bar.  Petrov on the left wing looked a little sterile but I think he will improve.  We looked like a team that was getting to know each other – no surprise with four new signings in the last 3 days!

I know friendlies often lack atmosphere but there was really nothing to cheer about here.  So maybe the post match “event” was going to be the best part of the day?  We were told to expect free Thai entertainment, free Thai food, and I thought there might be some freed Thai prisoners.  Fred thought there might be a demonstration involving some ping pong balls and razor blades but I doubted that Manchester City Council would have endorsed this.

It turned out to be a bit of a farce really.  In a way, I object to the grandiose former Thai PM welcoming me to my home city.  In any case the queues for the food went right round the square and the entertainment was lining up to be a bit drab.  After some silver dressed folk did a bit of a dance, a bloke in a suit came on stage, who turned out to be the compere.  As he suddenly, and without warning, launched into the opening bars of some Elvis Presley standard we were already running for our favourite Thai restaurant:  Chaophraya, which had to be better than Albert Square Karaoke.

We discovered Chaophraya in Leeds and after astonishing success there, they opened a Manchester branch, just above another of my favourite places, Sam’s Chop House.  Only one word to describe Chaophraya – beautiful.  Beautiful staff, beautiful environment, beautiful food, beautifully served and even the bill, at less than £60 for two including a bottle of wine, looked beautiful to me.

As I had chosen the steamed sea bass with lemongrass, fresh garlic, chilli and lime (a simple but simply perfect dish) I ordered a bottle of Avondale Estate Sauvignon Blanc 2005 at £19.50.  This displayed a grassy nose with hints of lemon and a slight zing to it.  The predominant flavour was of gooseberry with citrus undertones.  Went superbly with the Nueng Ma Now.

My starter had been the delightfully named Moo Yang which turned out to be pork ribs on bamboo skewers marinated in honey and coriander root.  Yum yum.

If you like Thai food you will not find a better dining experience than Chaophraya.  By every measure (and especially VFM) it scores every time.  Let’s hope Man City’s strikers make it a regular haunt.

Chaophraya, Chapel Walks (Above Sams Chop House), Off Cross Street, Manchester, M2 1HN.  T: 0161 832 8342.  E:  Manchester@chaophraya.co.uk  W:  www.chaophraya.co.uk

So where to dine before the show then?

If you are off to the Grand, I would recommend parking in The Light where you will find a range of eateries, some of which I will review in future posts.  This time around it is the turn of Browns.  A fashionable place under the Radisson Hotel, airy and yet austere (a former building society banking hall).

When in Yorkshire do as the tykes do, so I had the (Leffe battered!) fish and chips.  Not too bad actually. although not as good as Langan’s brasserie which (shame) is in London, or Murgatroyds (near Leeds Bradford Airport), or the original Harry Ramsden’s in Guiseley (before it became a chain), or even the (unlikely sounding fish and chip venue) Flying Pizza in Rounday.

The wine was a Robertson Firefinch Sauvignon Blanc 2005 from South Africa (a place I find frustratingly variable in wine quality).  This one at 12% was light yet full of wonderful tropical gooseberry flavours.  Grapefruit and lemons and Margarita mix – a strange sweet and sour sensation.  Something like licking a Love Heart dipped in salt.  It went well with the capers in the tartare sauce.

At £15 a bottle it seemed reasonable value.  I found it at quaffit.com for £7.50 so a 100% mark up is not too bad for a wine of this price.

Browns is one of those impossibly cool places – the only slight downside is that the service sometimes is too.

Browns Restaurant & Bar, The Light, The Headrow, LEEDS, LS1 8EQ
Tel: 0113 243 9353
Fax: 0113 243 9374

(Why do some restaurants go the trouble and expense of creating a posh website but don’t put an email ID on the Contact Us Page?)