Friday, September 21, 2018

Cape Wine 2018 - Faces and Wines

There was such energy and professionalism at Cape Wine this year and. amongst a lot of serious marketing and promotion, there was also some fun. We loved the approach made by the Bot River area calling themselves the Botriviera! Here is Sebastian Beaumont of Beaumont Wines with his excellent Hope Marguerite Chenin Blanc
Megan Parnell of Domaine des Dieux was showing the first bubbly nearest the entrance and she appeared to do a roaring trade; certainly lots of people were tasting and talking to them about these good MCCs from the Hemel and Aarde
Ina Smith of the Chenin Blanc Association with a great line up
Hannes Meyer with the lovely Lomond wines from down near the southernmost tip of Africa
Sharon Parnell and Peter Clark of Domaine des Dieux. We saw them working hard on the stand for much of the show as well
Franco Lourens of Lourens Family Vineyards. He also works with Chris Alheit at Alheit Vineyards. Their name for the shared stand was The Whole Bunch. It was important for many of the smaller producers to share the expense of the stands to get themselves known and their wines tasted. If only there were government support for the wine industry to support this sort of thing. Our wine industry is a big contributor to the fiscus and is given very little support by government, national, provincial or local, unlike other sectors like mining and SOEs
Marc Kent of Boekenhoutskloof with a customer
Mary-Lou Nash of Black Pearl Vineyards enjoying a tasting
Johann de Wet, Francois Rautenbach, Nicole Kuhnert and Bennie Stipp on the De Wetshof stand
Guy Webber on the Neethlingshof stand with customers
Dave Swingler, always happy tasting wine
Zelda Furstenburg at a seminar
Janine Petersen of J9 Wines with Michael Kern of the 3seven1 Group
Jane Abasalia and Liza van Deventer on the Holden Manz stand, promoting Pinotage
Francois van Zyl of Laibach with his Ladybirds
Graham Blackshaw with Jeff Grier and, in the background,
Arco Laarman on his stand, shared with Kruger wines
Charles Withington of The Darling Wine Shop
with Zia du Toit and winemaker Wynand Grobler of Lanzerac
Takuan von Arnim on the Haute Cabrière, Pierre Jourdan stand
Duncan Savage - different styles for different days
Trizanne Barnard with her Trizanne Signature Wines
 Winemakers can add their beauty to their bottles
Spier cellarmaster Frans Smit
Tebogo Makama with Tinashe Nyamudoka and Valencia Mosiea of One&Only Cape Town
Tinashe's Kumusha wine which was our Wine of the Week last week
Hildegard Witbooi, viticulturist at Springfontein Wines was there with her husband,
Tariro Masayiti, Springfontein's cellarmaster and General manager
Richard Kershaw with a Chinese customer who is also an admirer
IWSC Gold for Holden Manz
New release from Charles Fox: Reserve Brut made from Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier
Eben Sadie with Swedish sommelier Daniella Lundh Egenäs
Andre Morgenthal who runs the Old Vines Project, with some of the wines produced from old vines
Samantha O'Keefe, Lismore owner winemaker with Liesl Cluver Rust of Paul Cluver
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Posted by MENU at 2:04 am 0 comments

Thursday, September 20, 2018

Cape Wine 2018 - Overview

Cape Wine is held every three years and, this year, Cape Wine 2018 was held at the CTICC again for three days in September. We think that it was extremely professionally organised and there was a lot of energy and enthusiasm from our wine industry and from the eager buyers. Well done to Wines of South Africa (WOSA) for the very good organisation
#hannuwa. This ancient San word means the gathering of good fortune through living in sustainable harmony with our natural environment
Registration was simple and easy - not always the case at CTICC
There were good tasting glasses provided at the door and also on each stand
Helpful maps and information booklets
and great hanging posters promoting the industry and our beautiful wine area
The stands were in an understandable order, so people were reasonably easy to find,
especially if they were in a regional group
It was busy and buzzing from the first morning
A view of the hall from one of the seminar rooms
Good organisation was imperative as wine stocks had to make their way
to the stands as they were needed for tasting. This was the large
holding area, with many fridges for the white wines and bubblies
Food was available from the CTICC restaurants. We had a tiny grouse on the first day
when we went to get a sandwich to take away and eat on the hoof and were told that
we'd have to order and wait half an hour, which would have meant missing a seminar.
The following day, we took our own
Tucked away on the First Floor, this media lounge was almost unoccupied
None of the media members we know were told about it
Posted by MENU at 11:00 pm 0 comments

Chenin blanc Beach Party at Grand on the Beach, V&A Waterfront

Now this is what you’d call a good party! Held the day before Cape Wine 2018 began, the Chenin Blanc Association held their party on "the Beach" at the Grand Cafe next to the V&A Waterfront. We were invited to join the party, play and taste some of the best Chenins in the land. We were instructed to wear suitable beach attire and, in the grey and damp week leading up to the party, we wondered what woollen attire would be suitable (long johns with a snorkel were mentioned). But the Cape climate played ball and we had marvellous sunny and warm weather
Welcomed by a marimba band to get us into the mood. It worked.
Malu Lambert and Jan Sleet chatting
A friend with Ina Smith, Manager of the Chenin Blanc Association, which organised the great event
 What would they do without this wonderful woman who tirelessly promotes this versatile grape
A visiting foreign wine delegate tasting at Anthonij Rupert Wines' table 
Ken Forrester, Chairman of the SA Chenin Blanc Association, welcomes us all
David and Nicholas Trafford chat to a guest
Hannelize Mouton of Diemersfontein
Karen Steytler of Kaapzicht in conversation with Fleur du Cap winemaker Pieter Badenhorst
Alastair Rimmer, Cellarmaster at Kleine Zalze, tastes a Ken Forrester wine from a huge bottle
Some of Ken Forrester’s’ lovely Chenin Blancs, including the amazingly fresh 2007
Higgo Jacobs starts off the first Wine Olympics. The teams had to answer a series of questions about Chenin blanc and then participate in a competition to see who could sabrage a bottle of Ken Forrester’s Sparklehorse sparkling Chenin and send the decapitated top of the bottle through a hoop
Guy McDonald of Magic Radio was the MC and tried to keep the contestants under control
Pieter du Toit of Cederberg, aka King Neptune, was judge and jury of this hilarious competition
Attie Louw of Opstal, Sebastian Beaumont and Chris Boustred of Remhoogte
trying to get their answers straight
You can see it in their faces; they don't have a clue about the question. Not many of them did!
We got one right! Celebration. Sommeliers Neil Grant, Kim McBride and a British colleague; Winemakers Attie Louw, Sebastian Beaumont
Kimi Blackadder, Fiona McDonald, Martin Moran MW with those hoops that had to be rolled
Siobhan Thompson & Maryna Calow of WOSA, with Thea van der Merwe of Jordan,
taking a well deserved breather before Cape Wine begins
Guy MacDonald gives instructions about how the obstacle course is to be approached
Alastair Rimmer, Danie Steytler, Siobhan Thompson, Maryna Calow
Lynne enjoying the sun and the very funny entertainment
Next time we suggest flaming hoops for the dogs - oops, contestants to leap through
Pieter du Toit, aka King Neptune, watches the action
Judge Spencer Fondaumiere checking the answers! Sebastian has a problem with that answer...
The line up of warm wines for each team to "Find the Chenin"
Even the staff were amused
Such a laugh! Lynne with Jeff Grier and Lucille Botha
Chris Boustred gets tips from Sebastian Beaumont on finding the seam for Sabrage ...
... and sends that cork flying through the hoop
as does Attie Louw
David Clarke succeeds too
A tandem attempt by Kim McBride and Chris Boustred. They got a previous question wrong and had to go again. The ringed cork came from Chris, but it missed the ring
The teams having fun
MC Guy MacDonald with those really tricky questions about Chenin Blanc
Kimberly McBride, Manager at Salut Wines, Manchester serves us some of the Sabraged bubbles
Chris Boustred with their Remhoogte Chenins
The not-so-younger-generation; Graham Knox and Francois Naude having fun
Jeff Grier makes a very short speech while Anel Grobler listens in the background
Chris Boustred chatting to Jean Daneel. It was a very convivial occassion, very social with rather a lot of chenin consumed rather than tasted. Some of us had a rather tender time next day
Posted by MENU at 10:11 pm 0 comments
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