What I Drank Last Night

Difficult to concentrate on work when national side the Proteas is playing in a Cricket World Cup semi-final. As I was sneaking out for a lunch-time burger at local restaurant Drew’s on Durban, an unexpected call from Sebastian Beaumont of family-owned Bot River winery Beaumont. The 2010 vintage of Hope Marguerite Chenin Blanc (increasingly well [...]

Auctions are theoretically the best way of establishing the true market value of whatever is up for sale so what to make of turnover at the 26th annual Cape Winemakers Guild Auction completed on Saturday  coming in at R3 867 200, down 25% on 2009, which saw the highest ever sales in the auction’s history [...]

We all know Spain won the World Cup this time around, and Italy won it in Germany four years ago. But who were the runners up? Holland will be remembered as 2010 losers and I can just about recall that Germany and Uruguay were in the play-off for third place this year but I have [...]

It was off to the Cameroon vs. Netherlands World Cup game at Green Point Stadium last night. We arrived at Cape Town station and took the fan walk to the ground. Being 2.4km long, it was essential to stop for refreshment and with Vasco da Gama Taverna, Cape Town’s best Portuguese bar and restaurant (sorry [...]

To start proceedings at the World Cup tasting held at Boland Cellar on Tuesday (see previous post), three vintages of Dézaley Grand Cru Médinette from highly regarded Swiss producer Louis Bovard. Swiss cheese and Swiss chocolate we’re all familiar with, but its wine? It was going to be interesting to see if it was a [...]

Were there any World Cup omens to be had from a wine tasting held at Boland Cellar’s Northern Paarl facility yesterday?  Holland based Cees van Casteren, wine writer, educator and consultant hosted a formal blind tasting of 12 wine “icons” produced by the wine producing countries participating in the competition currently playing itself out and [...]

South Africa makes some of the finest fortified dessert wines in the world and yet it is a category that is about as popular as vuvuzelas during a live World Cup broadcast. The point has been made often enough that more imaginative packaging would go some way to helping sales and Stellenbosch winery Delheim gets [...]