Sunday night supper—homemade lentil soup with decent bread, a pretty good Vermont cheddar, and some sliced apple—would probably have been best with a nice red wine, but I’m on a twist-off roll, and a bottle of Goats Do Roam White came into the house the other day. This is the best known South African label in the U.S., which isn’t saying all that much. We’re beginning to know Antipodean and South American wines quite well, but R.S.A. stuff not so much. I didn’t even know Goats Do Roam offered a white.
It doesn’t list grape varietal on the bottle, but some Googling reveals that it’s 64% Viognier, 18% Crouchen Blanc, 13% Chenin Blanc, 4% Pinot Gris and 1% Muscat. Crouchen Blanc is a new one on me, but I learned on a visit a couple of years ago that what I don’t know about South African grapes and wines rivals what I don’t know about quantum mechanics. I do know, though, that this bottle, with its twist-off cap and sub-$10 price tag, was simple, crisp…and went fine with lentil soup.