The most useful suggestion made by Nederburg Auction speaker David White on Saturday was for brands to hire social media managers to engage with the public. Some wineries were ahead of the curve and already employ tweeters – with mixed results. One Franschhoek producer engaged vicariously in a war of words on Twitter last week while another tweets so much, it’s hard to believe he gets any work done at all.

Yet on the South Africa Undiscovered homepage of The Telegraph, I could find evidence of only one wine social media manager who recommends “if you’re heading to Stellenbosch and want a fantastic wine tasting experience followed by the most ideallic [sic] setting for lunch try Vredenheim wine farm.. memorable! www.vredenheim.co.za”

Vredenheim surf the social media tsunami

How ironic that Vredenheim is a farm which recognizes that “part of the charm of the farm is that the ownership resides in a true Afrikaans-speaking family where hospitality is still considered an important virtue” before breaking out into pure PG du Plessis-speak:

“Dit is ‘n plaas waar drome waar geword het:
- van Elzabé wat die eerste vroulike wynmaker op die Stellenbosch wynroete was
- van ‘n trekkerstoor wat in ‘n koffiewinkel met snuisterye omskep is
- van ‘n deel van die wynkelder wat omgetorwer is in ‘n pragtige funksiesaal
- van ‘n stoep sonder ‘n dak wat later ‘n restaurant geword het
- van die plaas se skrootwerf wat nou ‘n lushof van ‘n tuin is
- van ‘n zebra wat moontlik in jare wat kom weer die Kaapse kwagga gaan laat voortleef…. “

Language lessons for us all: “snuisterye”, “omgetorwer”, “skrootwerf” – terrific! Whatever will readers of The Telegraph make of all this, I wonder?