But is it art? We all know that the accidental splash of red wine on the white table cloth needs a positive attitude - otherwise the dinner party loses its soul. Such is life. Into bleach it goes, out goes the damned spot.

The disappearing act of reckless red wine is a social need. And thanks to the naturalness of the grape's pigmentation, there's never too much of a neutralising battle. Bang, and the stains are gone. But what if you saw deeper meaning in the image? What of you wanted to keep and contemplate it?

That rather domestic thought crossed my wine-drinker's mind at the fourth annual Tokara 'wine-made art' show at the Iziko SA Museum Whale well last week. Trust a sceptic soaked in wine/art to contemplate such matters instead of concentrating on the new releases (and the glory of virtually the whole large range under screwcap) offered as a sideshow of the temporary exhibition. (The pic alongside is from a few years back unfortunately - I didn't have my camera with me.)

When the concept was launched, it was clearly thought to be an original marketing thing. It was, but the results were pretty grim. Hardly art, more effort.

The effort, of course, was working with the wine. How do you get the stuff to stick and stay on the paper? And not to disappear under light (or bleach - like white wine)?

Fiona McDonald, ex Wine editor, was right on the question. 'Surely some fixative is used?' We spotted some 'burned wine' indicated as media, but that blurred the issue even more.

This time around, the organisers were clever enough to call in the good people. And so there were some quite charming images beyond the staples painted with wine. Vivian van der Merwe, a classy painter himself and arts lecturer at the University of Stellenbosch selected  four students to participate. (Klara-Marié den Heijer, Andreé P van Zyl, Marlene Steyn and Nina-Marí Faasen, exploring the brief 'Nature At Large'.)

If the venue lights were better (the frames were excellent), we could have judged the outcome clearer. But then, of course, the event was really about the wines. And jolly good too they were, especially winemaker Miles Mossop's  Platter five-star Tokara Elgin Sauvignon Blanc 2008, his great Walker Bay chardonnay and that delicious new Zondernaam Syrah/Grenache 2007.