How to make a great Port
A week before the Calitzdorp Port Festival, I traveled to the upper Douro for a few pointers on how to make a great Port. My findings: 1. Get the Romans to terrace your terroir and plant vineyards; 2....
View ArticlePinot @ Prowein
Paul Cluver, CEO of the eponymous wine producer, gave a presentation on Pinot Noir, the heartbreak grape, at Prowein this week. As part of the presentation, he asked three wine writers for their...
View ArticleIs blogging killing wine writing?
A curious comment from Tim Atkin, wine writer and blogger, quoted in OLN as he picked up an award from Wine Intelligence. WI seems to be a marketing/PR company that recently gave one to embattled WOSA...
View ArticleBonus for Bennie
Bennie Stipp (below, right), De Wetshof sales manager, wins the inaugural Pendock Prize for Wine Marketing for a Mangaung master stroke. Sitting next to an ANC functionary on a flight to China, Bennie...
View Article2013, the Year of Pinotage?
Pinotage got off to a good start to 2013 in an unlikely place – the columns of the Wall Street Journal. Long-time Pinotage-hater Lettie Teague penned an unexpected column headed Does Much-Unloved...
View ArticleIron Banana Love for Lettie
Powered by ABSA bank, it makes sense that the Pinotage Association at least should take the Wall Street Journal seriously. And the news that it’s Pinotage-doubting columnist Lettie Teague has seriously...
View ArticleDie Burger Bulks Up
Cabernet producers not chosen by UK wine writer Tim Atkin to be featured at ProWein next month – all paid for by WOSA - might like to ask Su and Andre just how these wines were selected. Was tasting...
View ArticleA WOSA Wish List
Yesterday’s Su shock scoop crashed the Uncorked site. Rosebank nerds are on the case and are confident of fingering the hackers, more to follow. But back to the scoop of Su waving sayonara into a Kalk...
View ArticleFranschhoek commits public Hari-Kiri
Franschhoek, once the most media-savvy appellation in SA, has shot itself in the foot like the elephants they used to cull with cannon borrowed from the castle, back in the salad days when the place...
View ArticlePosition Vacant: wanted – a “go to” person for SA wine
It felt like old times in Singapore last night as I dined at the Taj with my homies from the island state that is the gateway to Asia. Poh Tiong, founder of The Wine Review, shared a couple of insights...
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