A red for the last of the British summer

British August can't make up its mind. One evening is warm enough to eat outside with the back door open, the next you're moving the plates indoors while the rain hammers the decking. Most reds are built for one of those evenings, not both.

Which is why the Big Easy Red Blend earns its place on the rack this month. It has ripe fruit and real concentration, but there's a lifted, savoury edge running underneath that stops it feeling heavy. Even when the air is close and sticky, it doesn't sit on you.

That balance isn't luck. It comes from where the grapes grow, and it's the whole reason this wine works in the odd, in-between weather of a Cape-free British late summer.

The bank holiday grill it was made for

The last weekend of August is the one where the barbecue gets a final proper outing before the covers go on. Charcoal, smoke, someone insisting the coals aren't ready yet.

Pour this alongside a charcoal-grilled ribeye with peppercorn sauce and you'll see why the pairing works. Char and pepper meet spice and dark fruit, and the wine's bright acidity cuts straight through the cream in the sauce rather than getting lost in it.

A portion of the Shiraz in the blend is fermented whole-bunch, which is a winemaker's way of adding spice and aromatic lift. Against grill smoke, that lift matters more than power. It keeps the whole plate feeling alive instead of rich on rich.

Food pairing for Big Easy Red Blend, Charcoal-grilled ribeye with peppercorn sauce

And the wet sunday that follows it

August has those days too. Grey by ten in the morning, jumper by lunch, oven on because it's the only thing that feels right.

This is where a slow-roasted leg of lamb with rosemary and garlic comes in, and where the blend's fine tannin and herbal streak do their best work. Rosemary and roasting juices meet the savoury side of the wine and the two seem to agree with each other immediately.

If you'd rather cook something with a bit more warmth to it, a Moroccan-spiced lamb tagine with apricots is a proper match. The sweet fruit and the spice in the dish find an echo in the glass, and the wine's freshness stops the whole thing turning cloying. A beef shin ragu with pappardelle does something similar on a smaller scale: long, slow, comforting, and never overwhelmed.

Or nothing more than a board and a knife

Sometimes August cooking amounts to putting things on a board and letting people help themselves, especially when friends turn up on the off-chance the sun holds.

A wedge of mature Gouda with quince paste is the pairing I'd reach for here. The nuttiness of the cheese, the sweet-sharp quince and the dark fruit in the wine make a very satisfying little triangle. Add bread and you have supper.

It's the kind of flexibility that makes a bottle worth keeping in the house rather than buying for a specific meal. One wine, a whole evening, no rethinking halfway through.

Why the helderberg gives you this

The vineyards sit on the slopes of the Helderberg, on the cooler, breezier side of Stellenbosch, with the Atlantic only fifteen kilometres to the west. Sea-cooled afternoons stretch the ripening window by up to three weeks.

That extra hang time is the whole trick. The grapes build phenolic depth and flavour intensity without losing acidity, which is how you end up with a wine that tastes generous but drinks fresh. Weathered granite and clay-rich soils fill out the middle of the palate, so there's weight there when the food demands it.

The Ernie Els team picks selected parcels across six varieties, each at its own moment of balance. Fruit comes in pre-dawn while it's cold, gets optically sorted, then ferments as whole berries in open-top tanks and terracotta amphorae with gentle pump-overs and punch-downs. Some lots get extended maceration for deeper structure.

Every variety then ages separately in older oak barrels or amphorae for twelve to fourteen months before the blend is assembled. It's a fussy, parcel-by-parcel approach known as micro-vinification, and it's not what you'd expect behind a wine this easy to drink. The 2024 carries a 90-point score, and the wine has picked up recognition at the Decanter World Wine Awards and in Platter's Wine Guide.

Big Easy Red Blend in the vineyards of South Africa, the story behind the wine

Getting it right in the glass

August rooms run warm, and a red left on a sunny windowsill will taste soupy and alcoholic through no fault of its own. Aim for 17 degrees, which in practice means half an hour in the fridge door on a muggy day.

Give it thirty minutes in a decanter and use a generous glass. The florals and spice need room to open, and a small glass shuts them down.

It's drinking beautifully right now, fruit at its juicy peak, tannins already approachable. If you tuck a bottle away for five to seven years, expect that primary fruit to turn more savoury, with leather, dried herb and tobacco arriving alongside the spice. Both versions are worth knowing, and there's no wrong answer at 750ml a bottle.

If that sounds like your kind of late-August drinking, the Big Easy Red Blend suits anyone who wants one red that handles the grill on Saturday and the roast on Sunday without a rethink. Open it with lamb, with ribeye, or with a board of Gouda and quince when the rain sets in. And if you like where it takes you, the Big Easy Cabernet Sauvignon is the natural next glass.