Come on chaps, make a date.

In case you've not noticed, September 1 was International Tempranillo Day. And coming up, is International Grenache Day - also known as 'Journée Mondiale du Grenache', coinciding with our Heritage Day. Hope everyone had the right bottles ready for the first, and cherishing some good ones for the second. (There's a competition about this on Christian Eedes' blog. He has the day one early though.)

The question hanging in the air, of course, is when do we declare you-know-what-day?

For that matter, when are the other delightful varietals, some claiming to be 'noble', having their day in the international sun?

What a delightful marketing nonsense this is. One wonders whether all those upbeat delegates at 'the world's first grenache symposium (attended by) a who's who of the wine trade' in June had a specific party in mind when September 24 was proclaimed (except that it falls kind of a day after the equinox). The symposium about 'the unsung hero of the red wine world' website is here.

Tempranillo (an unsung hero of a different kind) had its first time because of TAPAS, the Tempranillo Advocates, Producers and Amigos Society. Sounds jolly doesn't?

Now that November's Beaujolais Nouveau day has lost its fun and shine, why not reinvent a whole year calendar of wine days?

Any ideas for pinotage? (Of course September 24 should have been it, given that we're now conflated 'heritage' and 'braai'.)

* Durbanville's sauvigniers have claimed October 1 as the start of their Season of Sauvignons.

** By the way, today (September 8) is International Literacy Day. Not sure what that means in terms of wine stuff, but any way...