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Was the plastic bottle thrown onto the Olympic 100m sprint final track on Sunday a recyclable PET bottle from Stellenrust? The Fairtrade Stellenrust Chenin Blanc was indeed packaged in a green bottle quite like the green bottle at the bottom of the Getty Copyright image below. And given strict security at the games, only IOC sanctioned beverages are allowed into Olympic venues.
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.
Prompted by @bohoparadox to write about WIETA (Agricultural Ethical Trading Initiative which somehow anagrams down to WIETA) I made some calls. With the fabulous Olympic Fairtrade Stellenrust wines of Tertius Boshoff making the front page of the Sunday Times, I wondered why the 35 registered Fairtrade producers (representing 40-50 growers) should pay twice to be ethical.
Bottelary Hills winery Stellenrust, the largest Fairtrade producer in SA, has won gold. And we’re not talking the tawdry tat dished out by dodgy wine competitions. But Olympic Gold as their Chenin Blanc 2012 and a 2012 Rose made from Pinotage, Shiraz and Merlot has been selected along with a red blend from Brazil (hosts of the Olympics in 2016) as the bespoke wines for the London Olympic Games. The good news was reported last week by Decanter.
Tertius Boshoff, Olympics Winemaker
Perhaps the most valuable takeaway for SA wine from VinExpo is that the way to market wine in China is via the Internet with the Apple iPhone the most popular device. Stellenrust winemaker Tertius Boshoff found out the hard way when his Blackberry was pickpocketed on the MTR subway last night. The offer of a $500 reward bore no fruit, but the thief should be easy to catch being the only person in Hong Kong with a Blackberry.
Tertius Boshoff, SA’s globetrotting winemaker from Stellenrust was in Singapore last week and tweeted an ad from HSBC bank that Turkey has three times as many acres of grapes as SA. Some creative must have had a brain fart, for what does that mean to your average Singaporean? I tasted some Turkish Cabernet at the Concours Mondial earlier this year and my doors were blown off. They say things like this come in threes, so no surprises to read in The Guardian that Turkey is now making wine bottles from paper that will reduce carbon footprints to pixie size.
Chateau cardboard
It was a dream dénouement for the Nederburg Auction yesterday when the Golden Boy of SA wine, Eben Sadie, toasted Nederburg and its winemaker Razvan Macici with Van Ryn 12 year old brandy. “Behind those white walls” opined the sage of the Swartland indicating Razvan’s historic cellar “are some of the most exciting wines in SA and this brandy is world class. South Africa makes some of the best brandies, Ports and Muscadels in the world. It’s the wines that need a little work.”
Juliet Cullinan and Eben Sadie
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.
Bottelary Hills, that bargain basement ward of the Stellenbosch appellation, produces some of the finest bushvine Chenin in the country. Stellenrust is the largest and best producer and Tertius Boshoff makes the wine. On the Paardeberg, our Chenin production is equally auspicious and well-priced and a visit to my Pied à Partyberg, Lemoenfontein, yesterday, revealed a welcome addition to the fauna of the farm – a steenbok called Xtian (pronounced Christian).
Bashful bridegroom Xtian
A friend of mine was offered a column on Tyler Brûlé’s organ Monocle but turned it down after hearing the pay. A bad mistake I thought until I browsed the March edition. Colonel Gaddafi is upgraded to General and we’re told that “sales to China of Argentine wines costing more than €160 a bottle” are up 233.6%.
