In Reasonable Taste (published by Moonshinemedia) is a collection of more than 60 short pieces, mostly about wine – or more specifically, taking the mickey out of wine snobbery and the rather self-important world of wine.
Most of them were written for Good Taste magazine over the past few years.
I had great fun doing the illustrations for the stories – one drawing for each piece. Some of my friends have been rather flattering about them, but that’s what friends are supposed to be.
In the chapters I take wry swipes at the art of sniffing and spitting, ponder the origins of the greatest of all drinks, poke fun of the poetic words we use to describe wines and recount a few on my own – not always glorious – wine experiences.
When you’ve bought your copy (which I trust you will) you’ll be able to find out why we break a bottle of bubbly over the bows of a ship when it’s launched. You’ll certainly learn some new stuff about the breezes that blow inland from False Bay and maybe even find a new respect for that old South African song, “Sarie Marais”.
The book is what one friend described as “loo literature,” hastily explaining that he was not implying that it was cr*p or fit to use as toilet paper. He merely meant to indicate that each chapter was exactly the right length to entertain you during a visit to the loo.
I don’t mind where you read it, quite frankly, as long as you do.
And enjoy it.

In Reasonable Taste is available from good book stores around the country for roughly R180. However, if you have difficulty getting hold of a copy, feel free to contact me. The book is also available on Amazon.com

Photograph: davidbiggsonline.com

Wine Book for Beginners

David Biggs joined forces with Colin Collard (founder of the Wine-of-the-Month Club and editor of Good Taste magazine) to compile this useful beginners’ guide to wine. The pocket-sized “How to Enjoy Your Wine”, covers many of the questions newcomers regularly ask.
Written in simple terms, the book gives helpful hints about pairing wines with food, selecting and storing wines and understanding wine labels.
As with any interest or hobby, the more you know about it, the more enjoyable it becomes.
It’s priced at just under R90 and is available from good bookshops, or from the club.
It makes a good stocking filler at Christmas time, so you might like to buy a couple of copies and tuck them away in your gift drawer.
To read more about this book, click on Biggs’ blog: The View from my Rock.
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I was born in the Karoo and grew up on a sheep farm, where I developed a love for the area and all its creatures, human and animal.
For more years than I can remember I’ve been writing a daily column about the this and that of life for the Cape Argus newspaper, but the call of the Great Karoo has remained as strong as ever and I often find myself tooling along the N1 Highway – often on my Vespa scooter – to my old home on the family farm, Grapevale. You can read more about this in my book Karoo Ramblings (see below) published by Moonshine Media.
In addition to writing about wine I have also produced several books on cocktails. I hope you will enjoy these as much as I enjoyed … writing them.

Karoo Ramblings by David Biggs

Karoo Ramblings

Reprinted: Now Available

David Biggs was born in the Karoo and grew up on a sheep farm, where he developed a love for the area and all its creatures, human and animal. For many years he has worked as columnist for the Cape Argus newspaper, but the call of the Great Karoo has remained as strong as ever and often finds him wending his way along the N1 Highway to his old home on the family farm, Grapevale. Here he can allow the dust and smoke of the city to blow away and enjoy the wide open spaces, the gentle humour and the sound sense of country life. How could anybody resist a place where meerkats watch soap operas on TV and sheepdogs ride on motorcycles. Join him in this little book on a whimsical ride through this fascinating country.

Click Here To Purchase: or contact me directly if you are in South Africa.

There’s not a great variety of wine on offer in the smaller Karoo towns. I tried to buy a few bottles of special wines locally when I visited the farm for a neighbourhood reunion recently, but was disappointed by the choice.
I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with Chateau Libertas, or the boxed wines from the Oranjerivier Cellars, but sometimes one hankers for something a little more complex.
Chatting to bottle store staff I learned that wine was a good seller, particularly among farm labourers.
I asked why there were none of the grander labels on the shelves.
I don’t expect to find the expensive Sadie family wines here, or Vergelegen’s V, or Waterford’s The Jem, but what about the Zonnebloem range, or some of the good Graham Beck wines? Camberley’s delicious Shiraz? Blaauwklippen’s Cabriolet? There’s a delicious world out there, I said.
Never heard of them.
And then I heard that dreaded standard remark so often trotted out by South Africa’s poorer shopkeepers: “There’s no demand for them here.”
Well, of course there’s no demand for something you do not have in stock.
How can you expect a thirsty farmer to buy a bottle of chilled Cape Point Semillon if you don’t have one on the shelves?
I believe there’s a huge untapped market out there in the South African heartland, but our industry isn’t taking enough trouble to cultivate it.
Do any of our wine giants take sales teams into the Karoo or Free State and hold tastings, or food pairing evenings to introduce farmers and local businessmen to the delights of fine wine?
We seem to devote a great deal of time and money to developing our export markets, while missing out on potential local sales.
Maybe we need a new organisation something like WOSA, but devoted entirely to bringing the delights of our wonderful wines to our rural areas.
Or are we going to remain content to send them cheap boxed wines for the labourers and keep the good stuff for sophisticated city drinkers?

Photo: courtesy GQ.com

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