Russia has suddenly become fashionable thanks to the rise and rise of Donald Trump, who will be crowned US president on Friday. Tickets to the various inauguration parties start at $25,000 and run to $1-million per couple.
The best party of last month was free. It was the launch of the virtual Hermitage Museum at the Cape Town Club, hosted by Russian consul general Roman Ambarov, the most stylish diplomat in South Africa by a country mile.
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The Hermitage is the jewel of St Petersburg and summons up images of horse-drawn sleighs (called troikas as they are drawn by three horses), smiling babushkas and dancing Cossacks.
This wine is also a troika: a red blend of cabernets franc and sauvignon plus merlot to unleash your inner Cossack. Chamonix in France is home to some of the toniest ski resorts in Europe. The skiing may not be as good at Chamonix in Franschhoek but the wine is far better. The best in the Cape, in fact, as this Bordeaux-style blend confirms: sublimated red (Russian theme) fruits with a steely structure (ditto).
The Chamonix Greywacke Pinotage redefines South Africa's home-grown grape while the pinot noir is the best wine at Kyoto Garden Sushi, the finest Japanese fusion restaurant in the Cape. So whether to celebrate DAD - the Dawn of the Age of the Donald - or to drown your sorrows, this Troika is the horse to back.
Price: R210 per bottle
Where to buy?salewine.co.za
Rating: 5/5 stars
***** Catherine the Great
**** Fyodor Dostoevsky
*** Igor Stravinsky
** Vladimir Putin
* Ivan the Terrible
• This article was originally published in The Times.
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