Tag Archives: Liam Mooney

Rosé Rocks 2015 Top10 winners announced, ‘fantastic future’ for Rosé!

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The winners of the inaugural Rosé Rocks competition have been announced, with Tamboerskloof Katharien Syrah Rosé 2015 named the overall winner.

The 160 Rosé and MCC Rosé wines were evaluated by a panel of judges, which was chaired by Woolworths’ Allan Mullins. Wines were tasted blind, without information provided about the vintage, wine estate, and technical analysis. The results were audited by Grant Thornton South Africa. Continue reading →

Doolhof launches latest vintages at La Mouette restaurant, introduces new winemaker Gielie Beukes!

imageThe Doolhof lunch held at La Mouette last Friday introduced us to three new aspects: the new Doolhof winemaker Gielie Beukes, the new Doolhof vintages, and the new interior decor of La Mouette.

New winemaker Gielie Beukes met the media for the first time at the function, having started at Doolhof last September. He comes across as a little shy in speaking, but his confidence will grow. I was lucky in sitting next to him, so could obtain more information from him after he introduced us to his range of wines, just after General Manager Johan Fourie welcomed us. Gielie handled all aspects of the 2015 harvest for the first time, which meant imagethat some of the wines we tasted (2014 and older) had been overseen by Rianie Strydom, who consults to the wine estate. Gielie moved across from Schalkenbosch, in Tulbagh, having previously worked harvests in Bordeaux and Napa, and having worked at Glen Carlou and La Motte. Gielie announced that they are discontinuing their Shiraz, and will sell off their grapes of this variety. They have also discontinued their Wooded Chardonnay, in a move to consolidate their range. Gielie shared with me that doing harvests in different countries was an immense learning experience, the French looking for optimum ripeness when picking grapes, while the Americans look for premium ripeness, picking grapes at an almost over-ripe state. Gielie is not only the winemaker, but has also been appointed as the Estate Manager. Continue reading →

Cape Town’s oldest urban farm recreated as Oranjezicht City Farm!

Yesterday we went to visit the Oranjezicht City Farm off Upper Orange Street, to see the excellent work which its co-ordinator Sheryl Ozinsky and her team of volunteers is doing in turning an old unused bowling green back into a non-profit urban farm, which was its initial usage more than 200 years ago, using the latest sustainable farming methods to grow vegetables, herbs, fruit, and flowers. Continue reading →