Immersion by Design
A “curator’s immersion workshop” sounds ominously like a CIA-style debriefing involving waterboarding. So when I was invited to my first last week in the Fugard Annex (which sounds like a particularly...
View ArticleWine of the Week: Usana barrel fermented Chenin Blanc 2012
Elgin Chenin Blancs are like buses: nothing for ages then along come two together. The first was Cathy Marshall’s Amatra 2012 (retail R91) at Auslese last Tuesday and on Thursday JP Winshaw’s Usana...
View ArticleDistell called “third world”
Well the market sure liked Distell’s R2.2 billion purchase of Burn Stewart Distillers on Monday with the share price at an all-time high of R117.90 this afternoon – which makes investment company...
View ArticleNederburg Auction gets a tight focus
What a week for Distell, the elephant in the national tasting room. On Monday CEO Jan Scannell drops R2.2 billion on Scotch. On Tuesday, Business Day calls them a “third world drinks company” and today...
View ArticleBaronne for the Thin White Duke
The stock market has fallen madly in love with Distell, or DST as they abbreviate it. The share price flirted with R130 today while some unfortunate directors were selling under R100 late last year to...
View ArticleBellies beat brains in Franschhoek
“Makes you think!” was the informal response from the SA National Wine Show to the bombshell that there will be no award this year for the Franschhoek Wine Writer Competition. A special meeting of Exco...
View ArticleFine Wine, Fine Art, Slovak Style
That the Dumas family does not make more of Marlene, arguably the greatest living SA artist and international superstar of note, is a marketing mystery. Marlene was born on the family wine estate...
View ArticleRio comes to Gugs
Brazil was the unexpected hit of the Tops at Spar Gugulethu Wine Festival which partied down last night on the roof of the Gugulethu Square Mall in the rainbow colours of Carioca sparkling fruit...
View ArticleWill Amarula Rescue SA Wine Writing?
The news that Baileys Irish Cream is to sponsor a Women’s Prize for Fiction in the UK (the old Orange Prize) with a R447,000.00 first prize throws a maroela berry firmly into the Amarula court. After...
View ArticleDim Sum with Dave
Lunch yesterday with Edward Snell chairman Dave Hooper at Ed Hung’s South China Dim Sum Bar (below) in Long Street, Cape Town. The joint was hoppin’ and Ed is a big fan of Cape brandy which is a great...
View ArticleRushton to the Rescue
Distell has a new MD designate and SA a new wine CIP – Richard Rushton (below) who ran Central America for SABMiller and before that, India, for the brewery. Which raises all kinds of intriguing...
View ArticleAdamastor Asleep
Sixty Shiraz down this morning at a category tasting for Classic Wine magazine. A similar number tomorrow and the finals on Thursday confirm Shiraz to be in rude health. Judge Karl Lambour, now...
View ArticlePink Ladies or Pinot Noir?
That Bacchus is under pressure in Elgin is a no-brainer. With profits of R250,000 per hectare to be had from pink lady apples and a tenth of that if you can sell Pinot Noir at R50 a litre to the...
View ArticleNederburg: Next Steps
Jan Scannell, Distell CEO and saviour of the Nederburg Auction after prices collapsed precipitously five years ago, has completed his rescue job and the Auction returned to rude health yesterday with...
View ArticleStellenbosch Terroir Treffers
“Better than winning the Pichon-Lalande trophy” said Andre van Rensburg, cellarmaster at Vergelegen on having his Vergelegen Sauvignon Blanc Reserve 2013 acclaimed as best Helderberg white at the...
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