As one dead tree comes crashing down, another sapling sprouts. The Mail&Guardian announces a new publication, the grandly named SA Wine Magazine. But the news that SA is considering hiking the legal drinking age from 18 to 21 comes as seriously bad news to the busy marketing department as their naive ad-offer for the new organ trumpets a “strong youth readership – 64% of our readers are aged 16 to 49. They are the leaders of the future.” Offering your pimply 16 and 17 year olds to the voracious SA wine industry is yet more fuel in the campaign to ban alcohol advertizing, I would have thought.

Mail&Guardian: a nice new voice in SA wine

Interesting story on the whole booze ad issue in yesterday’s Business Day, although quite how much credibility should one assign to a journo who thinks Chivas is a brandy? “Chivas brandy was not allowed to show an old book and a pair of reading glasses, because such items — intended to create a mood of age and erudition — had no bearing on the origins of the actual drink.” Huh?

To say the ad-rates for SA Wine Magazine (scheduled to appear at the end of October) are ambitious, is an understatement. Poor old WINE magazine, recently departed, was rumoured to be discounting ads at 50% in the last months of its tortured life. Those SA Wine Magazine rates:

Front Cover Logo & Strapline R52,500
IBC R43,000
OBC R43,000
OPENING DPS i.e. IFC + Page 1 R65,000
FP R35,000
Rates exclude vat

Whoaa! Why should a cash-strapped producer consider dropping serious loot to appear in this “separate A4 Crystal Gloss magazine which will be inserted into the main body of the newspaper. This way readers can keep it as a coffee table read afterwards.”

For as if they didn’t know “the South African wine industry has a long and storied history. From the first wines produced by the early Dutch Settlers to the fantastic boutique wines being sold across the world today, the industry is world famous.” With deathless prose like this, which producer can resist?

But the really intriguing aspect of the magazine is the ability to write your own copy. Or as the advertising flyer says “to be considered for editorial inclusion, contributions should be received by 07 October 2011.” Interested winespeakers and putative John Platters should send them to Ben Kelly: benk@mg.co.za.