SEEING DOUBLE IN IRELAND

T here was a huge fuss a couple of years ago when US retail giant Walmart launched a special wine label for St Patrick’s Day — featuring a drunken leprechaun.

As one complainant wrote on Irishcentral.com: “They wouldn’t think of putting a sombrero on Our Lady of Guadalupe to celebrate Mexican heritage, so why is it OK to associate our patron saint with leprechauns?”

In her opinion, the only acceptable icon for St Patrick was a simple shamrock, the three-leafed plant with which he famously explained the Holy Trinity, thereby converting the Irish to Catholicism during the 5th century.

Of course, legend also has it that St Patrick banished all snakes from the Emerald Isle, when in fact post-glacial Ireland never had snakes. And then there’s the two-Patricks theory, now apparently accepted by most modern scholars, which is that many of the traditions attached to Saint Patrick actually concerned Palladius, Ireland’s first missionary bishop, sent there by Pope Celestine I in 431.

Which should lead neatly into a punt for Palladius 2011, the iconic chenin-led white blend from Sadie Family Wines, except that this stunning wine (around R550 a bottle) is named after a different Palladius — Palladius Publius Rutilius Taurus Aemilianus, the 4th-century Roman author famous for his 14-volume treatise on farming, De re rustica.

All things considered, I’ll drink Guinness with my corned beef and cabbage tomorrow, and recommend a wine for Human Rights Day on Friday instead. Arra Vineyards on the R44 near Klapmuts is celebrating the public holiday by offering a wine tasting and cheese platter for R35 per person.

Make sure you try the Cape Blend 2009 (R80.40 ex-cellar), whose 38% pinotage component is seamlessly integrated with shiraz, cabernet and merlot to result in a richly flavoured wine that will make South African as well as Irish eyes smile.