Johannesburg lost two upscale restaurants this month - Linger Longer and Auberge Michel - adding weight to the argument that if SA fine dining is not yet dead, it is certainly starting to smell funny.

Franck Dangereux, who put La Colombe at Constantia Uitsig on the international gastronomic map, now runs the more modest Food Barn in Noordhoek, while some of Cape Town's grandest establishments only get bums on their Louis XIV ghost chairs through perpetual winter/summer specials.

Yet a strong rearguard action is being fought by a medieval guild of goose roasters founded in 1248. La Confrérie de la Chaîne des Rôtisseurs is a 1950 revival of a French royal guild and is today an international gastronomic society with 350 members in SA. One-third are food industry professionals - chefs, hotel managers and sommeliers - with the balance taken up by foodies, lonely hearts and party animals.

I attended one of their dinners at the Oyster Box Hotel in Umhlanga Rocks, KwaZulu-Natal, earlier this month. Oyster Box is a hotel at which everyone's parents seem to have spent their honeymoons. The occasion was the intronisation of a fresh batch of KZN members by Alison Rutowitz, Maître de Cérémonie, wielding a small sword. Oyster Box managing director Wayne Coetzer joked that he thought it was a pensioner's dinner until the band struck up, the ladies shed their shoes and Strictly Come Dancing rocked Umhlanga Rocks.

This was the best wine and dine function in two decades spent covering hedonism's beat. The wine was by Peter Finlayson whose Bouchard Finlayson brand goes down especially well in Natal. Conventional wisdom holds that if beer does not appeal, then gewurztraminer is the bottle to order with curry. But with the exception of the dryish one from Paul Cluver, a one-glass maximum generally applies to what is usually liquefied Turkish delight. While Cape Malay curries are often sweet or served with fruit chutney and so require a fruity chenin blanc or at the very least a wine with more than a hint of residual sugar, Natal curries fall on the savoury/spicy category for which the BF Kaaimansgat Chardonnay 2009 is a perfect foil, thanks to its oily mouth-feel and amazing flavour intensity.

The food was by Bailli (boss) of the Bailliage du KwaZulu-Natal, Kevin Joseph, whose consommé in his "Sushi goes Swimming" course was the finest this side of Nobu. It was brilliantly offset by a BF 2009 Blanc de Mer riesling/viognier/sauvignon blanc/chardonnay blend. Finlayson's comment "although this wine is our entry-level offering, it is not without interest" is a massive understatement while Joseph's attention to detail - videos of the salmon being caught, guinea fowl being shot and an outrageous disco of pornographic cartoon fruit - set the scene for a memorable night.

The chaîne is much more than rich people eating rich food and speaking bad French. In September next year, they play host to the International Young Sommelier of the Year Competition and an influx of tastevin twirlers should boost the wine-waiting fraternity, struggling to achieve take-off velocity in SA. Festivities take place in Cape Town and Oyster Box's sister hotel the Twelve Apostles will certainly feature.

• Read Pendock Uncorked at http://blogs.thetimes.co.za/pendock