Move over Duimpie Bayly and take your Demarcation Committee with you! It looks like the Advertising Standards Authority is to decide on that vexatious pocket (pace Elmari Swart and Izak Smit) full of frogs aka SA terroir. Reacting to a complaint by Cape Point Vineyards, “the only grower and producer of wines in the Cape Point district”, the ASA ruled that Distell’s Two Oceans brand “must withdraw some of its ‘misleading’ television and internet advertising, and must change its packaging.”

The irony of Cape Point owner Sybrand van der Spuy wrapping himself in terroir will not be lost on those hairy sandals long protesting his kaolin mining operations on Chapman’s Peak. Nor will his trucking-in of grapes from the Paardeberg for (presumably) other brands in his portfolio be overlooked by true terroiristes. But when one of the canniest investors in SA wine starts moving to protect his terroir, perhaps marketing of SA wine is moving to another level.

Cape Point winemaker Duncan Savage and Sybrand van der Spuy

Pedants will be surprised to note that the ASA objection was not to the claim that two oceans meet at Cape Point (when as any fule kno, it happens further east at Agulhas), but rather to the possible perception that Two Oceans wine was made from grapes grown on the Peninsula, a GoogleEarth-like view of which graces the bottle label. Even though the wine is labeled “wine of origin, Western Cape” and it’s no secret that the grapes for the most excellent Two Oceans Pinot Noir hail from the west coast, for example.

So then, Mr. ASA, does this mean that anyone with Table Mountain on their label should book an appointment with the hottest young label designers in town, Rohan Etsebeth and Janneman Solms, for a makeover in case the ASA’s dreaded “reasonable viewer” might assume the grapes were grown on the mountain, or hydroponically in the cable car? Or that Golden Kaan, which features the continent of Africa in gold on its label, sources grapes from Equatorial Guinea, possibly planted by Simon Mann?

Rather than argue that the Two Oceans brand predates Cape Point Vineyards and the Cape Point appellation, as Distell’s legal eagles did, Uncorked would have argued that the satellite image of the Peninsula has become a symbol for the Western Cape, along with the outline of Table Mountain. An argument Sybrand may have had in mind when he told the Cape Argus “he wouldn’t be surprised if Distell appealed against the ruling.”

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