Red wine in 30 plus degree temperature

I went to a tasting of the Beaujolais Nouveau last night at the Novotel Hotel. A rather lavish affair, with respect to the spread of food that was laid out.

Gooey soft cheeses escaping their moulds in the thirty plus degree temperature, charcuterie, bread and of course the famous Beaujolais wine.
I had my phone with me and yet I failed to take pictures of this lavish spread...I will get the hang of this.

The marketing concept behind the Beaujolais Nouveau has been nothing but phenomenal with respect to the brand awareness that has come out of it. Everywhere in the world, where there is a big enough French Community, the third Thursday of the Month is when all corks of the "new wine" are popped as masses around the world celebrate the new harvest.

An interesting conversation with someone last night though revealed that the success of the campaign may well have been to the detriment of wines from the Beaujolais Region - there is now an inescapable association of Beaujolais wines with poor quality wine.

Poor quality or not, there was plenty consumption of the wine last night- which is served chilled thankfully. I am not sure how palatable it would have been in the hot and humid tropical temperature otherwise. The Francophile in me will return again next year to gorge on the scrumptious food and imbibe the well-marketed young wine.

It did get me thinking though, what is it that as South Africans sets us apart from other Nations that is worth celebrating? Yes I could list innumerable attributes that make us 'Truly and Proudly South African' starting with our much lauded transition into a democratic society - but what is our version of the Beaujolais? We do gather en masse in our respective communities around the world to braii, and watch the Boks when the season of endless tests start, and there will always be the Bafana Bafana support around a telly even though we yet again question Benny McCarthy's commitment to our National Team - but then so do the French for their sports teams, the English similarly and the Ghanaians for their much-loved Black Stars.

I still do not know what our Beaujolais is though.

Can a country that has such disparate views of its history find a common theme that can be celebrated by every South African from Mpumalanga to Helsinki? Can we take the diversity represented by the Rainbow Nation and market it with the same fervour as the French have done with their wine? Can we take our wine- we are after all a leading wine-producing nation- and give the French a bit of competition in that area?

For now anyway we have the Vuvuzela - even if those Japanese want it banned.