They’ve been lurking on exhibitors stands for years, with their funny shaped bottles and often gregarious bright colours. Sometimes in tall, thin, frosted glass bottles and even ones with feathers stuck to them. They look tempting, but what are they exactly? In most cases the answer is: Port!
Port wine is a style of fortified wine, originating from the Duoro region of Portugal. It’s nothing new, in fact it was as far back as 1678 when two vacationing English traders discovered a wine that had been fortified with brandy. They were impressed and bought all the stock, added a little bit more brandy spirit and introduced it to the English market where it became an instant hit.
South African ports have themselves a history dating back to the early 19th century. Again the English market provided the customers required and exports were bullish by the standards of the day. Our ports were almost exclusively sweet in style, and trends being as changeable as they are we suffered a decline in sales as the international palate gravitated towards a more dry style.
I was recently invited to attend the launch of a new wine brand at the absolutely stunning 15 on Orange Hotel.
The wine in question was to be the new venture of Retief ‘The Goose’ Goosen, which has proven to bring out a very exciting mix of new-age wines, that are both pleasing to the tongue as well as exciting for the wine industry due to its rather interesting farming location.
Farmed in the Upper Langkloof just outside Oudtshoorn, passionate winemaker, Morné Jonker, saw a unique opportunity for something rather special. After doing several soil and environmental tests, he decided to take on the challenge of wine farming in this cool and unusual location to see what it would yield.
It was only a few years ago when one of the top golfers of our time and major title winner, Retief Goosen along with property developer Werner Roets decided to take the plunge and buy this farm to develop it into what is now known as ‘The Goose Wine’.
The FM Wine Business Awards, now in their second year, were conceived to provide focus and recognition to those within the industry going the extra mile to deliver business results. The emergence of the new South Africa saw healthy deregulation of our wine industry and with it a massive surge in the amount of wine farms and producers entering the arena.
There are no fewer than 15 “wine awards” in the country, and until the FM Wine Business Awards all were focused squarely on the product inside the bottle. The constant quest for quality and product excellence is no bad thing. But as any savvy producer will tell you, a wine decorated with a plethora of awards that remains unsold in the cellar doesn’t pay the rent. So who has been excelling in marketing, branding, packaging, supply-chain management and all the other crucial facets in a successful wine business? Read More
The wine industry and wine-lovers alike are up in arms over potential mining plans in the winelands that threaten some much loved vineyards. Read
The mining story deepens as speculation grows that the plans could be a smoke-screen to hide plans for land-grabs in the winelands. Read
The research included 19,000 women and took 13 years to conduct. But it’s official. Women who drink wine moderately appear to gain less weight. Read
The Italians have launched a de-alcoholised wine called “WineZero”, made from Spanish grapes and sold in cans. Why? Read
Julius Malema has blamed wine drinkers for his recent woes concerning questionable business dealings. Malema was quoted saying “left-wing leaders who drink red wine” were the cause of his problems. Read
Ever wondered what to do with all those odd wine glasses in the cupboard, the one or two left over from an otherwise smashed set? You can make beautiful music with them and go down as a smash-hit at your next braai! See
If only it were true! Here’s an amusing French spoof-advert for a USB device that enables you to literally download your favourite wine straight into the bottle. See
Wine-based Jelly-Shots? Here’s a tried and tested recipe from theloveofwine blog using Kleine Zalze’s Gamay Noir Rose which was reviewed by our Taste Team See
Recession hitting you hard? Here’s a nifty recipe from the US for making wine with table grapes from the supermarket. If anyone tries it, we’d really like to know how it goes, and bring some to The Wine Show for us to taste! See
Kleine Zalze’s new blog For the Love of Wine has gotten off to a flying start. Those of you who’ve been reading us since the beginning will have seen how they’ve been recruiting “wine ambassadors” to blog about their wines. There’s all kinds of great comments, recipe’s and tips and colourful photos. Check it out for yourself here
Neil Pendock highlights amusingly inaccurate reporting on the One & Only Cape Town in Tatler magazine. Advice includes ordering in Afrikaans at Nobu and Maze as apparently you’ll be served bigger portions. Read
Popular wine blog The Cru has been asking the question about content aggregators within the wine website arena and the ethics therein. Dare we fall foul of accepted manners you’d better just click Here
