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If you want to see what all the hype around Fairtrade wine tastes like, a bottle of Place in the Sun Cabernet Sauvignon 2010 for R45 makes it crystal clear why Fairtrade wine sales in SA trebled from R18.4m in 2010 to R73.2m in 2011, or 255,600 bottles. Far from being the pits, PITS Cabernet 2010 is an understated masterpiece and a solar credit to cellar master Deon Boshoff (below) and his team at Zonnebloem, the dark horse in Distell’s stable. As an aside, to be a successful Fairtrade winemaker, is the surname Boshoff a requirement? A question best asked of Tertius Boshoff, winemaker at Stellenrust, whose Olympic Fairtrade wines monopolize foreign and local media coverage.
Krismis has come early for wine writers in 2012 as PR campaigns start including desirable goodies in wine dropoffs that keep hedonism’s hacks solvent in these times of shrinking word counts and vanishing column inches. From Place in the Sun, a solar powered Consol glass tadpole jar to throw a ghostly glow at a new moon picnic on the upcoming shortest day of the year. Plus a bottle of robust 2011 Shiraz. From Zonnebloem, for whom solar power is also appropriate, the most delicious Grana Padana cheese, umami city, and a succulent 2010 Shiraz that I decided to drink, rather than trade. At Simply Asia, with a sweet and sour beef stirfry. Totally delicious with bouncy ladyboy Thai pop.
Well the 100 ladies have spoken and here are 100 wines they chose for ten occasions. A fascinating mixture of big brands and boutique labels – a people’s Platter, if you will.
The news that the Sauvignon Blanc Interest Group [SBIG] has secured sponsorship from First National Bank for a continuation of the controversial Sauvigon Blanc Challenge from defunct WINE magazine, confirms that wine marketing abhors a vacuum. But has the market moved on? Consumers buy wine for occasions: a Sunday braai, wedding anniversary, book club and not by varietal. Most punters think that rosé is a cultivar.
This is the seminal idea behind Clare Mack’s revolutionary 100 Women, 100 Wines event that went down at the V&A hotel at the Waterfront yesterday. And rather than pointy headed “professional” pundits from Pinelands, Clare brought ordinary women together from Pretoria, Porterville and Putsonderwater to choose them, courtesy of 1Time Airlines. Ladies were selected by a competition run in Destiny magazine, the most popular competition Destiny has ever run.
100 women choose 100 wines
