e sat in front of a blazing fire in the hearth of the tiny hunting cabin. The chimney drew well as long as the door was kept slightly open, like Lem Putt advised, to get the draft just right. We were sipping a most wonderfully aged 56-year-old Cabernet Sauvignon from Stellenbosch Farmers’ Winery. It was rated as the wine of the millennium, Simon told us. It have been, I thought, to have legs to carry it all those years. Just like Charles Sale’s little book that drew equal authoritative conversation with the wine. The little 29-pager has gone through 410 000 copies by 1952. Well, that was long ago, and it has been in print ever since, with the latest edition I could uncover being as recent as 2018! Perhaps by now it has already sold over a million copies. Now that’s quite an achievement for such a humble little book. I guess will hold its interest and
