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- The Standard Bank WineX Festival is at the Sandton Convention Centre from 25 to 27 October. News24 content producer Bonolo Sekudu caught up with event organizer and SA's original wine master, Michael Fridjhon, on the differences between Western Cape and Gauteng wine audiences and how they're working to bridge the gap.
- The Cape Winemakers Guild Auction brought in a benchmark R14 788 000 this weekend, making it the most successful auction to date.
- Neal Martin's Complete Bordeaux Vintage Guide makes it to SA, offering context to fine wine and the perfect gift for the aspiring wino this festive season. Shop now via Wine Cellar.
- As Christmas is basically upon us (calm down), best get your tickets for the Noble Vice Farm Feast at Kaapzicht Estate on 11 and 12 November, featuring 60 of our finest established and up-and-coming producers and 10 established and up-and-coming chefs. This is sure to be a gastronomic event for the books!
"Everyone talks about dry wine but actually, it's wet." - Madiba
*Dry wines refer to wines that have little to no residual sugar content.
Michael Fridjhon quoted Mandela to my lovely colleague Bonolo Sekudu on Friday last week when she attended Standard Bank's WineX media launch in Randburg. To be hosted later this month from 25 to 27 October at the Sandton Convention Centre. Fridjhon quoted Mandela, having known him before the Rivonia Trials and later in office, and in reference to Madiba's unrepentant penchant for sweet wines.
With many South African wine consumers (including Bonolo) having cut their teeth on sweet categories like Robertson's Sweet Red, Fridjhon commented that the sweet and sweet red wine categories had become game changers in broadening the wine-drinking market.
As a category that usually serves as a gateway to the more serious dry wines - though Fridjhon also commented: "If they want to drink sweet wine forever, that's their journey!" - I was interested to understand the difference between the Jo'burg wine market and the Cape Town one I know so well, what they were looking for, and what they thought of wine. And so Bonolo set out to investigate.
While the issue of alcohol abuse remains very much at the forefront of the conversation, Fridjhon (and I) advocate that rather than regard wine in the political sense of alcohol (and all the evils inherent to that), the civilised consumption of wine is less about alcohol and more about getting people to engage.
Wine as a product speaks of a place, its people, and a year in the vines. It encourages responsible engagement and informed conversation and is, by extension, an ambassador of SA culture.
"I wish people would be less political around the idea of wine as alcohol and see wine help to build bridges in this country," Fridjhon says. There really is a cultural divide between the Western Cape and the rest of the country when it comes to wine engagement, he says, and while events such as WineX and the Soweto Wine Festival manage to bring the Cape wine industry to Gauteng at least once a year, this is something that needs to be done more often to bridge the divide successfully.
Standard Bank WineX this year is bringing 179 wine brands to the Sandton Convention Centre, at last count. And while a daunting figure, the aim is not to sample as many wines as possible but to learn more about the brands on offer from the winemakers and educational content they have available online to help you understand what you like and help curate your own wine selection beyond the supermarket shelves. Find out what brands, wine regions, varieties, and wine styles resonate with you, and you'd like represented at YOUR table, with YOUR friends, to inform YOUR conversation and teach you something more about what South Africa is capable of. The international acclaim of SA wine only hinting at our prowess - what more, if we could get behind it as a country?
Michael believes that Sparkling Wine is the most demographically fluid category of wine, a style he says that has it all. From the prestige of Champagne to our local Cap Classique, no longer deemed a discount category, and not shy about being enjoyed sweet, as in the Nectar category. "Champagne and Cap Classique will be where people will finally shed their inhibitions and give in to the gravitational pull of the category, offering a little something to everyone."
As such, I invite you to plan your upcoming visit to the WineX festival, review the winemakers and brands on display, and don't be shy! Ask questions, interact with the winemakers. You might be pleasantly surprised by the amazing people you get to meet. There are no stupid questions. Explore wine varieties you've never heard of and see if you like them and their makers. Ultimately, it's about what YOU like. You don't have to be a wine snob to love good wine!
Book your tickets here.
The Cape Winemakers Guild Wine Auction hits R14 million
Earlier this year, I interviewed Cape Winemakers Guild chairperson Gordon Newton-Johnson, who indicated they were looking to break the R14 million mark with this year's auction, having made a record R13 985 500 in earnings at last year's event. I'm here to report the 2023 auction made a whopping R14 788 000 this past weekend, with 478 lots sold over two days, representing 39 wines from 31 Guild Members on offer - the highest total ever.
Swedish Master of Wine Madeleine Stenwreth MW attended to offer us deeper insight into the wines on offer, emerging trends, exceptional examples of variety, style, region, and general sentiments from the two-day event - and will report back in full soonest.
In the meantime, for some background on the Guild and how it's been doing in recent years, read our most recent feature here. And congratulations to all those involved, a great day for SA wine!
The Complete Bordeaux Vintage Guide by Neal Martin
I've been hammering on about wine as culture and something MORE than alcohol. As such, I would be remiss to neglect telling you about the recent release of Neal Martin's book, The Complete Bordeaux Vintage Guide, available via Wine Cellar. * Neal Martin is a Senior Editor at Vinous.com, one of the most respected wine critics in the business.
Explaining 151 Bordeaux vintages, he goes beyond the tedious business of rainfall graphs and average temperatures (though he works them in for the fastidious) but connects each year to an event, song, or film and colours it in with personal encounters and anecdotes of the winemakers and grape growers of this now flash, but once simple winemaking region, that now represents the epicentre of fine wine worldwide.
This book should give you some insights into why Bordeaux has become such a venerated winemaking region and also serve as a benchmark for fine wine in general. Thus, the education you need to further understand the very complicated world of wine, though as the MGMT song Kids goes: "Take only what you need from this." Do not let it overwhelm you, but rather colour the way you think of wine. I feel a little sepia tinge should set the tone.
The perfect gift for your aspiring wino friends and family as the festive season approaches. Purchase your copy here.
Noble Vice Farm Feast | 11-12 November 2023
With Christmas almost upon us (yes, I exaggerate, but also true, so calm down and listen), the weekends are booking up fast. If you're planning ahead, best plan this one in as well.
The Noble Vice Farm Feast, hosted over two days (11 and 12 November) at the Kaapzicht Wine Estate in the Bottelary Hills (the last time at this venue), representing 60 winemakers and 10 chefs over two days - is one for the books. With a curated selection of 30 winemakers present each day and a signature lineup of five established and upcoming local chefs selling street-food-style meals for additional purchase on the day. Tickets will include unlimited wine tastings, a branded wine glass, and a booklet indexing all the wines and producers of the day - with the opportunity to purchase wine for on-site consumption or to order for home delivery.
The wines and producers adhere to rigorous selection criteria that emphasise minimal intervention and sustainable winemaking while also serving as a launchpad for emerging talent. Thus look out for some of our incredible new talents like Brunia, Lelie van Saron, Paulus Wine Co., Rebel Rebel, Vino PH, and Tembela Wines, to name only a few, together with some of our old and new faithfuls. You're guaranteed the cream of the proverbial crop and wines you can't find everywhere. Thus, really, for the in-the-know crowd, you know?
Tickets are R695 per person and available here. With only 450 tickets available per day, consider this your rallying cry.
* Noble Vice supports responsible drinking and encourage all patrons to make use of third-party transport companies for the festival: EZShuttle, UBER, Good Fellas, Roadtrip, and Get Driven. You can pre-book your collection times with all of the above by getting in touch with them directly.
Editor's Note: Transport information updated.
