Oral fixation

Friday, April 24th, 2009

Apparently the last in the series of Harry Potter movies was filmed in Leicester Square in London last night.

I should have gone to the director and offered my services as a death eater or some other equally spooky creature. They wouldn’t have needed to blacken my teeth: after a day spent tasting a raft of South African red wines at the Decanter World Wine Awards, they were already quite black enough!

Take today for instance: First up our panel faced off to 11 Pinotages from Paarl, before following that up with another five in a different price bracket from Stellenbosch and Paarl and then tackling a flight of nine Cabernet-based blends. After that there were another six Cabernet based blends from the Western Cape – all priced between five pounds and 10 pounds – and then 11 Shirazes.

The result was that by lunchtime our tongues and teeth were black from all the tannin… and the afternoon of tasting another 40-odd Sauvignons Blanc and Chardonnays didn’t reduce the effect. While furiously chewing sugarfree gum in the tube, I had to consciously remind myself not to make eye contact and smile at anyone. Britons are considered to have some of the worst teeth in the world, but after a protracted bout of tasting tannic red wines wine tasters of all nationalities could give them a serious run for their money.

However, with everyone on the Tube wrapped up in their own little world and doing everything possible to avoid making eye contact, it was easy to remember not to smile toothily at anyone…