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Following in the deep footsteps of Cape Wine 2012, it seems SA wine just can’t get enough of wine expos. The latest is planned for Stellenbosch (Oak City) in January which will host a ten day Bacchanalian which culminates in a three day Wine Expo on Die Braak which “will take full advantage of the beautiful natural surroundings with rustic tables, green décor and free-flowing Bedouin tents.” Bedouin tents showcasing wine is an innovation to make a mullah mad.
Dress code for January's Stellenbosch Wine Expo
“Will I see you at the Titanic dinner next month?” enquired Richard Astor, partner with Mark Solms in the most progressive winery in Franschhoek, if not the entire SA, yesterday. The occasion was their annual oesfees, which brings the kief , kool and kleurvol to a former fruit farm of Cecil John Rhodes in the shadow of the Drakenstein Mountain. We were sheltering from the pitiless sun under a spreading oak on Solms-Delta farm while Richard and Mark were looking for something to eat. A time consuming task as the lunch queues were of British dimensions – many and long.
Artist Joa Schonfeldt, Richard Astor and Mark Solms
When will we see our first corporate Wine Ambassador, the face of a brand? Meerlust already has proprietor Hannes Myburgh and Rust en Vrede is blessed with Jean Engelbrecht. But what’s missing is the face of Two Oceans (someone with Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde on their CV) and Obikwa (the late Henry Cele who was such a great Shaka, would have been perfect) while that Farmer Brown chicken fancier would do great as the visage of Roodeberg. After all, ambassadors sell whisky, as the story below, rejected by a glossy lifestyle magazine in November, attempted to say. They’d commissioned a Q&A and wanted the formula neatly reproduced.
The annual Whisky Live Festival has more ambassadors than the United Nations. But then it is the largest whisky festival on the planet. Which may seem incredible, until you are told that South Africa is the 7th largest market for Scotch in the world by value, ahead of Germany and breathing down the neck of South Korea.
With more brands on bottle store facings from Scotland’s 100+ distilleries than member countries of the United Nations, it makes sense for producers to appoint ambassadors to market their product. Ewan Gunn has landed the job of every whisky wonk’s dream: brand ambassador for Diageo, the largest whisky producer of them all and the face of Johnnie Walker, the top-selling brand of blended whiskies.
Ewan Gunn at Whisky Live
Is Rui Esteves the hottest entrepreneur in town I ask in today’s Sunday Times Food Weekly? From the red leather seats of his white 1971 vintage Mercedes 280se to the cheek-revealing low slung jeans as he shakes Tabasco onto his morning huevos rancheros at Clarke’s Bar and Dining Room in Bree Street (leading Cape Town contender for hippest boulevard in Africa), Rui has more moves than a surfer from Oaxaca. The state with the unpronounceable name, from whence he sources barrel-aged mezcal. He’s even considered adding a jaunty accent to become Ruí or perhaps even Ruì.
Rui and Nic
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.
My story on the big disappointment of missing BEE brands at the recent Gugulethu Wine Festival quickly rose to top of the pops on the winenews site last week, even overtaking all the vulgar ego-surfing of the Old Mutual Trophy Wine Show. I had more to say on the matter in the Sunday Times yesterday.
Paul Elgin from Paul Cluver Estate
While entrepreneurs of the blogosphere ponder how to monetize their activities, I’ve decided to keep my head down and fix the things I find broken. In the case of wine on the web, it’s a desperate lack of content caused by everyone aggregating everyone else’s opinion. The result is a gejaag na wind as farmers in the Swartland say. It’s the Idiot Wind Bob Dylan sang about that had 100 bloggers posting the same inappropriate tasting note on a jolly 2010 Sauvignon Blanc called Wishbone from Oak Valley after a well protected piss-up at Mzoli’s in December. Host Anthony Rawbone-Viljoen obviously got the short end of the chicken’s wishbone on this one.
Hein Koegelenberg and a La Tour 1945
Cost: R300 for a magnum;
From: Vriesenhof farm (website directions: beyond an oak tree growing in the middle of a tar road on the Helderberg) 27 (0)21 880 0284;
Why: The first time I met Jan ‘Boland’ Coetzee on Vriesenhof, I was early and Jan was swimming nude in the pool next to his house. The second time, he was in the cellar, carrying the bloody heads of a brace of springbok by their horns, one head in each hand. The third time, like Bob Dylan, he was not there. His place was taken by Nicky Claasens who was clothed, sans koppe with no obvious pools of blood evident. Nicky looks like a Helderberg Harry Potter, so I minded my manners in case Jan was hiding in a corner under an invisibility cloak.
Old Nick
The Eben & Adi Show at yesterday’s Swartland Revolution in Riebeek-Kasteel was a big tent affair like those East Rand travelling religious revival meetings from the eighties with miracles performed amid much happy clapping. Could Eben Sadie be the Pastor Ray McCauley de nos jours? The Rhema religious revivalist of rustic reds, as mighty Mr. Min might alliterate? Heck the first three letters of Ray’s surname, MCC, are the acronym for SA sparkling wine. Which, this being a Swartland Revolution, was replaced by corked Bollinger Champagne poured by Adi’s winemaker, jivey Jasper Wickens, in keep-as-a-momento Riedel crystal flutes after the E&AS.
Eben on a roll
The HQ of Dietrich Mateschitz, inventor of the Red Bull energy drink, is Hanger-7 at Salzburg airport. The building looks like a tortoise cut in half. One half houses an eclectic collection of aircraft, the other an impressive array of modern art plus a restaurant called Ikarus which hosts international chefs on a monthly basis. Michelin three star stunner Jonnie Boer from De Librije in the Netherlands has guested and in April it is the turn of David Higgs, chef at Jean Engelbrecht’s Rust en Vrede restaurant on the Helderberg.
David Higgs
