My year of wine: If in doubt, call on a wine master to help you out

An invitation to a five-star David Higgs restaurant. A lunch date for two. An age gap of 25 years. And, a remarkable list of 500 wines. Anything could happen, right?

The lunch date was not the consequence of a series of late-night happenstances. It was contrived by The Saxon Hotel's public relations machinery. The afternoon could have been an embarrassing mess. It wasn't. I had a delightful meal with a wine geek.

Stefan Kobald, one of the five sommeliers at The Saxon Hotel, recently passed the second of four of the international Master of Wine exams. In the next eight to 10 years, he plans to pass the fourth level to become a Master of Wine - wine geekdom's ultimate gong, according to Slate. For me, that afternoon in the hotel's Qunu restaurant, he was the master.

Kobald spends his life with wine - tasting it, buying it, reading it and serving it.

Without his help, I would not have made any sense of the intimidating 40-page wine list.

There are many ways to judge a wine list. It should pair well with the menu, there should be various price options (R250 to R55000 on this one), and it should be diverse and exciting (heard of AA Badenhorst's Funky White?). This one is most of these and well-organised. Reds, whites, the rosés and bubbles conventionally listed in groups, with local wines separated from others. Easy?

Not at all. There was very little on that list I recognised. Choosing one to drink with the soup of the day, a roast tomato and onion with ginger sauce, left me longing for a glass of iced Overmeer.

Kobald suggested I try the 2008 Ashbourne Sandstone. It did not cool the spiceyness enough. On any other day it would not have mattered, but it was swiftly replaced with a glass of 2013 Paul Cluver Close Encounter Riesling. Kobald later told me that when he is stuck, champagne and riesling are always a safe option.

After consulting fellow sommelier Brett Naicker, the next two dishes were perfectly paired. With the sea bass I drank 2012 Gavi San Pietro - an Italian, made from the Cortese grape. With the pear tarte tatin I had the 2012 Mullieneaux Straw Wine. Its deep honey colour was the same as the cooked pears, and its finish lingered late into the night.

I understand the benefits of using a sommelier. Like Matt Day, an English wine writer, says, given a chance a sommelier will "take you one step closer to food and wine heaven".

That would be finding heaven without getting yourself into an embarrassing mess.