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How cool it was to eat rare pan-fried hake, basil and tomato crushed potatoes, Parmesan velouté, mussel and saffron vinaigrette in the Pierneef à la Motte restaurant last night while listening to the secrets of Spain played on guitar by that George Clooney lookalike, James Grace. For this was no WINE magazine money-making opportunity with bizarre sponsor that pretty much defined the SA tasting scene for the last decade. No siree! This was the first event for Classic Wine magazine and publisher, Dominic Ntsele dropped more bombshells in his witty address than an Apache helicopter piloted by Prince Harry. Here he is being painted by Jacobus Hendrik Pierneef.
Cape Times journo Quinton Mtyala sure has a way with words. On Monday he started his report on the ANC centenary celebrations with a doozie “Bloemfontein might have been hot and dry for most of this weekend, but it was dripping in gravy, the sort dished out by a generous sugardaddy who turned 100 on Sunday.”
The spittoon is foaming over the identity of the author of The SA Pinotage Guide “a new publication on Pinotage, its pioneers and history, intrinsics of the grape, the major producers and Pinotage personalities.” It’s not Peter May, author of PINOTAGE: Behind the Legends of South Africa’s Own Wine and since food is not mentioned in the title or blurb, its unlikely to be Guido Francque, the Belgian chef with a bee in his bonnet for the culitivar. Commissioned by the Pinotage Association, the book will be released in mid-January at Diemersfontein, an estate which changed the direction of Pinotage forever with its coffee/mocha variant. Peter will be in SA at the time, so let’s hope someone remembers to invite him!
Donkiesbaai Steen fermentor "Space Ball"
As one dead tree comes crashing down, another sapling sprouts. The Mail&Guardian announces a new publication, the grandly named SA Wine Magazine. But the news that SA is considering hiking the legal drinking age from 18 to 21 comes as seriously bad news to the busy marketing department as their naive ad-offer for the new organ trumpets a “strong youth readership – 64% of our readers are aged 16 to 49. They are the leaders of the future.” Offering your pimply 16 and 17 year olds to the voracious SA wine industry is yet more fuel in the campaign to ban alcohol advertizing, I would have thought.
Mail&Guardian: a nice new voice in SA wine
WINE magazine was born in October 1993 to the sound of popping Cap Classique corks with a youthful Pieter “bubbles” Ferreira from Graham Beck on the cover and the final September edition features the results of the Amorim Cap Classique Challenge, so a nice symmetry is maintained. At the awards lunch of upscale KFC at the Grande Roche today, MCC maestro Jeff Grier from Villiera reported that Sunday’s Side Bar in the Sunday Times had sold him an extra fifty cases of Sauvignon Blanc 2010. “We had a Superquaffer of the Year Award for the 2009 vintage in the 2010 Platter guide which had nowhere near this effect” said Jeff “which just confirms the power of the press. I also got two marriage proposals on my smart phone from the picture you used.” If we’d only had the February 1999 WINE magazine cover (below) the proposals would have been off the scale.
Jeff Grier and duck
WINE magazine is going out with a bang. While the final September print edition threatens to become a sentimental sendoff – I was asked if I’d like to revise my final column but declined, preferring to go with the scoop of how Angolan generals are buying up the Douro, big time and if they’d only taught Portuguese at Paul Roos, Stellenbosch farm prices would be flying – the August edition includes a provocative booklet called WineIQ sponsored by Ultra Liqours. Confirming that Mark Norrish is the Rupert Murdoch of the Winelands and his colourful catalogues are the future of local wine reportage. Does that make Carrie Adams, Wendi Deng?
Is it just me that has noticed the weird correlation between developments in the ongoing UK press soap opera and SA wine? Last week, WINE magazine announced cessation of printing on the day Rupert Murdoch called time out on News of the World while yesterday News International CEO Rebekah Brooks and KWV CEO Thys Loubser both resigned over a bugging scandal. News from the La Concorde Lubianka in Paarl is that Thys was woedend (upset) over irregular access of his office and files while he was overseas at VinExpo in Bordeaux.
Thys Loubser in happier times
The press release yesterday from RamsayMedia announcing the cessation of printing of that “venerable publication” WINE magazine was a masterpiece of ambiguity – headed “wine closure” I thought it was another cork story. As a venerable columnist on that organ, it behooves me to list my top ten reasons for the bombshell. That I’m blogging them is suitably ironic.
Opinion is divided on the new cover of WINE magazine. Clare Mack, the cosmopolitan food and wine blogger, loves the new matt look while a former employee dismissed it with a single word: “haemorrhoids” over dessert at Hemelhuijs.
The plot thickens. An amazing e-mail to producers this morning from the Top 100 SA Wine competition/retail opportunity/exhibition/wine guide/what-have-you claiming that the “OLD MUTUAL TROPHY SHOW ATTEMPTS TO CLOSE DOWN THE TOP 100 SA WINE CHALLENGE!” and linking to two lawyer’s letters which speak for themselves.
