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“South Africa, we’re coming Tutu ya!” and “lay in De Beers” are the headlines in today’s Sun newspaper in the UK, covered every hour by Sky News, the only TV channel I watch after SABC stuffed up Survivor by shuffling episodes into the wrong order, much to the chagrin of Two Oceans who advertise widely on the series.
The Sun headline writers refer of course to England qualifying in explosive style (beating Croatia 5:1 at Wembley last night) for the soccer World Cup 2010 which is shaping up into a perfect positive storm for SA wine.
“Do you think you’re Tim James?” shrieked Fiona McDonald when she saw me on Saturday at the annual potjiekos cook-off between the Simonsberg and the Paardeberg, held this year on Vondeling in the Voor-Paardeberg. The appellation nobody’s every heard of as they don’t enter wine competitions, according to French fundi Michel Bettane. Not that they’re being standoffish: the T-shirt on the back of a young Robert Downey Jr. look-alike Vondeling winemaker Matthew Copeland offered “are you ready for a Vondel (pronounced fondle)?” with more than a few Paardeberg poppies blushing in the affirmative.
Shod in my finest Havaianas (complete with mini Brazilian flag) bought in Sao Paulo, Fi was referring to the Cape Wine Master whose feet are the kind only the most desperate of Port producers (or those desperate for a sympathetic sighted Platter rating) would allow to tread grapes in their lagares.
Fi flees in terror from my Havaianas
Bento boxers over at Grape, showing late summer severe Savonorola symptoms, have launched a set the record straight campaign. Amongst various high profile SA wine estates claiming some fictitious first or other (a practice damned as “tawdry”) Distell are scolded for claiming that two oceans meet at Cape Point in a “fact” sheet for their Two Oceans brand.
Belo Horizonte is the Johannesburg of Brazil. They’re about the same size (metropolitan BH is home to around 5 million rainbow souls) and both date from the late 19th century. Both have more fashionable twins (Rio and Cape Town) on the coast and mining is the business of both. But that’s where the similarities end. Brazil is seriously different and even buying a bottle of wine in a supermarket brings that point home. Read More…
