ILUV,
We had a marvelous wine experience at Jiko a year ago. As luck would have it, our server was Ron, who is also the sommelier for Jiko. He has a passion for introducing people to new wines and especially for surprising you with something you might not think you would like.
Actually, he had also waited on us on a previous trip, when he was still at Spoodles. That night, we had told him that chardonnay was by far our favorite white wine and that we seldom liked other whites. He proceeded to bring out some non-chardonnay whites he wanted us to try, and we totally fell in love with one of them (martin kodax from Spain).
Same thing happened at Jiko. I went on an on about how pinot noir was too "thin" for my liking, and that I by far preferred merlot or cab sauv. Well, he brought out a few bottles and placed them on the table such that we could not see the labels. Guess what--we both fell in love with a Meerlust pinot noir. Awesome wine. And, once again, Ron was delighted to have surprised us.
Our experience at Jiko has prompted us to be the occasional bottle of South African wine when we are in a specialty store.
So--moral of the story--go to Jiko, request Ron as your waiter, and if he isn't available in that capacity, odds are he still might make it to your table in his role as sommelier. Have fun!!
Janet