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Today’s Weekend Argus claims “Cape wine farms fight to survive” in a front page feature quoting producer representative VinPro which singles out Simonsig, Delheim and Kanonkop as three producers “in a serious predicament.” But rather than the financial squeeze occasioned by economic conditions, the serious predicament faced by producers is the amazingly incompetent PR skills of bodies such as VinPro, judged by pronouncements such as these, if they are correctly quoted.
The big winner at tonight’s SAA Wine List Awards was Anura, a producer whose name is Greek for “no tail” which is the amphibious order of frogs. The Klapmuts winery won both trophies given by the two leading ladies of SAA (“no tails” in League of Gentlemen-speak): the Cheryl Carolus trophy for biggest volume supplier to the airline and the Siza Mzimela trophy for most listings. At least SA Airways are only losing their tails unlike Qantas who have grounded all their kangaroos and aircraft.
SA wine tourism bureaucracy is obviously corked when the operator of one of the country’s finest dining destinations, Wilhelm Kühn of Tokara Restaurant, can quip that they received an award for “best wine tourism restaurant” from an organization called Great Wine Capitals and joke that he’d never heard of the award before receiving it the day before. Or was it a joke?
A cynic might conclude that GWC stands either for Gay White Christians or is a members’ only club for Winelands mayors and other fat apparatchiks to fly around the world, racking up frequent-flyer miles and big-noting themselves.
Winetimes, Hofni and Winestyle
Where was Sakkie? Downing beers and peri-peri prawns in Mozambique was the best guess at last night’s Night of 1000 Glasses held at Plaisir de Merle. The last time I dined on the lawns on PdM, large ladies were falling like nine-pins as the legs of the garden chairs sunk into the waterlogged lawn. Real arse over kettle stuff. This time, a gloriously white tent with crystal chandeliers like giant shopping bags and tables full of baby orchids was the venue for the annual showcase of Cape Legends.
Talk about bad timing. Absolut Vodka celebrates 30 years of marketing distilled potato juice (winter wheat, actually) to lesbians, gays, transsexuals, bisexuals, transgenders, the musical and left handed folk on the day a London coroner blames the stuff for causing the death of party girl and torch diva Amy Winehouse.
If Robert Palmer’s Addicted to Love is the perfect pop song, played, as Wikipedia noted, by “a group of models whose pale skin, heavy makeup, dark hair and seductive, rather robot-like expression follow the style of women in Patrick Nagel paintings” then 4G Wines has produced the perfect designer wine. Its “soft release” took place this afternoon before the Kings of Leon concert in the Greenpoint stadium on the day Cape Town landed the 2014 Design Capital bid.
Mia, Philipp and Mari
Diners Club fall victim to their own generosity by failing to charge an entry fee for their Diners Club Winemaker of the Year and Young Winemaker of the Year competitions. If you’re a cynic and reckon show success is a lottery, the more tickets in your pocket, the better your chances. And if those tickets are free… One wannabee Young Winemaker of the Year entered 13 dry whites this year.
Bartho Eksteen, Diners Club Winemaker of the Year 2010
Well the 31st Diners Club Winemaker of the Year is now decided, although not even convener of the judging panel, Dave Hughes, knows who it is. Forty-four wines were tasted blind, having been reduced to this number from 110 submissions by an independent screening panel yesterday. A final round of the top scoring nine contained Bordeaux-style blends made by seven winemakers as two winemakers had two wines in the final nine.
Screening panel in action
The odds shortened substantially on Joakim Hansi Blackadder – JHB – winning the inaugural Bollinger Exceptional Wine Service Award – BEWSA – after half the finalists dropped out at the final fence on Friday. Hot favourite Josephine Gutentoft was delayed in Nairobi by a third-world foul-up while Francis Krone also failed to appear.
BEWSA favourite JHB
Vincent Lignac, from Château Guadet, is the international judge at this year’s Diners Club Winemaker of the Year Competition which makes sense, as the category is Bordeaux-style blends and Vincent makes a Grand Cru Real McCoy from Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. He arrived at the Grande Roche at 10pm last night courtesy of KLM with his suitcase quietly seeping 1962 Guadet which retails at €350 a bottle. “I’ve travelled all around the world and this is the first time a bottle broke. I came back from the USA with 19 bottles and no problem.” Another casualty of airlines banning liquids in hand-luggage.
Vincent, Carrie Adams and Duimpie Bayly
