On Friday evening I attended the launch of the 40th edition of the Diners Club International 2020 South African Wine Guide, at the Table Bay Hotel in the Waterfront, an event that is pretty much the same in format every year, yet was different this year, in the interest of making the event shorter.
More than 8000 wines from more than 900 producers were rated for the 2020 Platter’s Wine Guide edition. Of the 125 5-star wines awarded, 26 went to Chenin Blanc brands, 18 to Shiraz/Syrah, and 11 to Chardonnay brands.
For the past two days I have participated in a Blind Tasting of more than 130 white, Rosé, and red wines at the offices of sponsorship specialists Divine Intervention, to select wines which will be incorporated into the winelists for the four restaurant brands of the new Cowboys & Cooks restaurant group, which has been founded by highly respected restaurateur Michael Townsend and his strong support team. 
The winner of the Flagstone SwitchBitch promotion is a family, Georgia Eccles Schoeman, her mother Patricia Eccles, and husband Robert Baerveldt, for their clever word play in motivating why they should win the Flagstone hamper of wines with cooler bag, and a copy of SwitchBitch. 
Flagstone’s PR Consultant Katie Coetzee kindly has offered a branded Flagstone cooler bag with six wines, as an Easter give-away. I am adding a copy of my book ‘SwitchBitch: My journey of transformation from Sour to Sweet!’ to the give-away package. 
Yesterday I attended the launch of the new Flagstone Tasting Room in The Rockwell hotel in Green Point, a facility designed to capitalize on the tourists visiting Cape Town during the summer season.
A number of records were broken last night when 94 wines and one brandy were awarded 5 star status at the launch of the Platter’s by Diners Club South African Wine Guide 2017 at the Table Bay Hotel, a new venue, the event having been held at the Mount Nelson for years. The colour of the 2017 Platter’s Guide is Harvest Green. 
Multi-wine and brandy brand company Distell was crowned as top producer at the Veritas Awards Gala Dinner at the Cape Town International Convention Centre on Friday evening, winning two Double Gold and 12 Gold Awards. Distell also won Best Performer by Enry, in the 10+ Entry wine category. A total of 30 Double Gold and 130 Gold awards were awarded to 1760 entries. 
