I DO love a wee steak and ale pie but I’m afraid I’m guilty of popping down to our local village butcher as his version is very delicious and just needs heated in the oven while we wrestle the wee ones into bed. So, the biggest stress you should have is picking exactly the right bottle to go alongside.
South Africa, despite my best efforts, continues to be a hard-sell for many wine consumers in Scotland. Back in the day, South African producers had a reputation for producing entry-level wines at glugging prices. The supermarkets would always have an unremarkable Chenin Blanc piled high for £2.99 a bottle. However, South Africa has always been a contender on the world stage at the top end of the spectrum and, particularly nowadays, the quality is through the roof. This is especially true if you explore regions such as Stellenbosch and Franschhoek. So, you’re still getting really good value compared to other New World regions, and you can usually put a tasty, well-chosen wine on the dinner table to boot.
South Africa owes more to central Europe (and particularly France) style-wise than California, Chile and Australia. So this weekend you’ll end up with more of an Old World wine in your glass than you’d expect. This means that you have quality, gravitas and food-matching potential in spades with a lower bottle price than you’d expect for the quality. Everyone’s a winner.
These bottles are all very tasty, especially with a good steak pie (either home-made or from your local butcher).
Flagstone Knock On Wood Reserve 2008 (M&S, £13.99). This is a lovely blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz and Pinotage, and the older vintage adds depth and complexity as well as kudos to the wine. It won’t be around forever, so grab a bottle soon.
Meerlust Red 2012 (Inverarity One to One, £13.99). The Myburgh family have been making brilliant wine in Stellenbosch for generations, and their entry-level "Red" is a great introduction to the (usually more expensive) range. It’s a classic Bordeaux blend, and very food-friendly.
Iona One Man Band 2013 (M&S, £16). This Syrah-based blend from Elgin is more Rhone-style than Bordeaux but is arguably the best bottle to sit alongside Shirley’s steak and ale pie. It has a lovely peppery-spice note on the palate with a wonderfully rich mouth-feel. Just make sure you decant before serving.
Pete Stewart is Glasgow director of Inverarity One to One, 185a Bath Street, Glsgow inverarity121.com
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here