Cape Cooperage rolls out the barrel
There are no wine flies on barrel suppliers Cape Cooperage. By donating two French Oak Quintessence barrels to two protégés of the Cape Winemakers Guild, Sacha Claassen and Tamsyn Jeftha, the barrel importers are making the not-too-subtle point that...
Liz and the dompas
The orgy of obituaries following the death of silver screen goddess Elizabeth Taylor last week contained a gem from Truman Capote, revealing the luvvie carried her dompas in true SA style. The new dompas is of course, Dom Pérignon Champagne beloved o...
Fourth Franschhoek Oesfees
This afternoon the Sanhedrin of Afrikanerdom, the ATKV (Afrikaans language and culture association), grasped the revolutionary Franschhoek Oesfees to its ample crimpolene bosom. The 80-year old cultural movement had swooped down on the four year old h...
UK budget blow for SA wine
The news that the UK’s baby chancellor George Osborne (he’s 39) is to add an extra 15p in duty – that’s R1.69 down here – to a bottle of wine is especially bad news for bottom feeding SA producers as proportionately, the tax is biased against...
Glasses for Sparkling Sauvignon
Yesterday’s post on opportunities for sparkling SA Sauvignon was no doubt picked up by the Riedel glassware empire as a chance for a new glass design, especially when Business Day’s entrepreneurial wine pundit, Michael Fridjhon, is their busy local...
Bring on the Sparking Sauvignons
Drinking Mojitos with Gary Jordan at the Cluver wedding on Saturday, Gary observed “I can buy quality grapes and wine from any varietal far cheaper than I can grow it myself.” Nowhere is this more obvious than with Sauvignon Blanc with the Cape aw...
Touriga Naçional at Pichon Lalande
The news that the national grape of Portugal, Touriga Naçional, is doing well at Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande in Pauillac comes as no surprise as the estate is now owned by Louis Roederer who also own Ramos Pinto in the Douro which ...
SA Wine Writers Prize
Entries are being solicited again for the annual SA Wine Writers Prize and for once the organizers have assembled a credible judging panel. The first running of the competition in 2009 was compromised when the winner turned out to be the deputy editor...
Paul & Alexandra
Yesterday was a special day in Elgin. The last time the moon was this close to the apple orchards, it was 1993 and mothers were eyeing-up teenage Paul Cluver – “a bundle of energy with a prominent nose” as the best man described him – ...
