China & Calitzdorp(1)
Debra Meiburg, Master of Wine, is a hot commodity in a hot land – a Californian who has lived in Hong Kong for 25 years and a glamorous wine expert to boot. For HK is undisputed centre of the fine wine universe with last year over 40% of global wine auction turnover channeled through an island of thrusting skyscrapers built with bamboo scaffolds. A gateway to China’s thirsty billion, predicted to have more middle class consumers than Europe within the decade. As such it is the Shangri-la for SA producers battling financial headwinds in their largest export market, the UK.
China: downtown Hong Kong
Debra is no stranger to SA, claiming distant kinship with Hannes Myburgh of Meerlust. She’s a self-confessed “fan of SA wine” who has visited the Cape seven times, worked a harvest at Meerlust and competes in the Argus cycle race, dodgy ankle permitting. Her latest project is a TV series taking viewers around the world, matching food and wine. We caught up over lunch at the China Club, a sort of Rand Club done large in downtown HK.
“Bordeaux and Burgundy are easy but what recipe would you choose for SA? Is braai too kitch?” Which reminded me of the presentation of the boffin of boerekos, François Ferreira, the previous weekend. Ferreira shocked and rocked the Absa Calitzdorp Port & Wine Festival with the claim that “boerekos doesn’t exist, it’s just modified Cape Malay cooking. Look at the flagship dish bobotie and boereboontjies are just Malay boonchies.”
