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Emile Joubert, the Ernest Hemingway of hedonism, interviewed me in Die Burger yesterday. We focused on Sauvignon Blanc and the recent Concours Mondial du Sauvignon.
670 wines from 22 countries, 9 juries, 50-odd judges held in Bordeaux over two days. This is the third running of a competition which has three aims: to promote Sauvignon Blanc around the world; to become a promotional tool for producers and to become a reliable quality seal for consumers. Entries are up 30% this year, which is impressive as the Euro crisis has seriously shrunk producer marketing spend. One Kiwi judge has been un-invited from three trips to Portugal this year as funds have dried up like the tears on the statute of a plaster of Paris virgin in the upturned bathtub. Seems that Portuguese marketers now give their marketing moolah to UK retailers to list Portuguese wines. Perhaps WOSA should consider this rather than blowing R1 million on a party for themselves to launch Cape Wine 2012 in September?
Panel 3 chaired by yours truly with the camera
The news that Nederburg has made two special Masterchef wines for Woolies: an 90:10 red blend of Grenache and Carignan and a 60:40 blend of Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay from the 2010 and 2011 vintages respectively, brings together two of the nicest guys in SA wine: Nederburg cellarmaster Razvan Macici and Woolies wine consultant Allan Mullins. Why did Nederburg do it? Getting four listings on Woolies facings for their Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot might have had something to do with it.
Are SA wine marketers homophobic or simply asleep? For while Cape Town may pose as the Gay and Wine Capital of SA, it takes an American vitamin water company called Glacéau to sponsor Love Sundays, a cocktail party that brought down the curtain on Gay Pride weekend at Societi Bistro. Van Loveren missed a great opportunity to launch their 2012 Sauvignon Blanc, which was only bottled last week.
Lovely luvvies @ Love Sunday
While our own much loved Sunday Times becomes less and less interested in wine (was it last week or the week before that there was nothing at all about vino?) the British weekly The Spectator is moving in the opposite direction. Bruce Anderson pops up with a full page column while Simon Hoggart runs the 2/3-page Spectator Mini-Bar. Which last week reported that Cape Point Vineyards winemaker Duncan Savage was “widely regarded as the leading white wine maker in South Africa” before lifting off in flights of hairy hyperbole about Duncan’s CPV Sauvignon Blanc 2010.
Duncan the Great
The last time I saw Miles Mossop was at the SAA wine list awards in October and so bumping into him at the penthouse party of Karl Lambour on Saturday night, reminded me that airlines are perfect customers for wine producers. They pay on time and not on final demand, like many restaurateurs. And with Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner made from carbon fibre now whispering its way among the clouds, one of the less obvious advantages are that cabin pressures will be higher (1800m altitude equivalent instead of 2400m) and more fresh air provides an environment closer to a terrestrial tasting room. And what a view!
Pommes can be forgiven for always talking about the weather when hill walkers were braving 165mph breezes yesterday and the Met Office issued a red warning after a “weather bomb” saw air pressures drop 44mb in 24 hours. Wedderwill means being at the mercy of the weather, which is pretty much the status quo for this biodynamic producer atop the hill above Sir Lowry’s Village. “Gale force winds” are an understatement, according to winemaker Nico Vermuelen while GM Wolfgang von Loeper recounts horror stories of driving through raging bush fires which have plagued this windy corner of the winelands for the last couple of years. Extreme winemaking indeed.
Wolfgang von Loeper
Today’s Cape Times offers Nederburg Baronne for R35 a bottle at branches of Picardi-Rebel. Yet in the Presidential Suite on the 16th floor of the Taj Hotel in Wale Street (Angela Merkel’s overnight bag still in the 270° glass bathroom) this evening two of the finest wines in SA were poured for a Cape Town media crew that included the new wine scribe for GQ magazine, Pieter Smedy and Thuli Gogela, the hot new indigenous food blogger.
Pieter Smedy and Razvan Macici
With Dave King’s Quoin Rock coming up for auction, the media is full of speculation as to who will buy the spectacular 158ha wine estate worth “more than R120-million.” Speculation focuses on “billionaire Johann Rupert and banking tycoons Paul Harris and GT Ferreira.”
WineX is the last of the big wine shows in the calendar before Christmas. It stretches over three days, starting on a Wednesday, ending on a Friday. In the last years it was quite opportune to go there on Wednesday, as all the people of the trade were there with a reduced audience allowing better access to the wine stands on the various islands. Come Friday, WineX had succumbed to a booze-up of the nouveau riche and glitzy people. More eye candy than palate potential, unfortunately!
