Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines

*   Prince Harry arrived in Cape Town yesterday, on his way to the Antarctic, where he will accompany the British team in the Walk with the Wounded charity trek, on a 200 mile trek over 18 days, competing against Australian, Canadian and American teams.  Poor weather has delayed Prince Harry’s flight to the Antarctic.

*  Free wifi is now available at the Sea Point Pavilion, a service offered by the City of Cape Town as part of Cape Town’s status as World Design Capital 2014.

*   The Naspers building is more than 50 years old, and once was Africa’s tallest building.  One of the Cape Town World Design Capital 2014 projects is a competition to redesign the building, with a prize tag of R200000, as well as the implementation of the transformation, with a R15 million budget. (received via WDC Cape Town newsletter from the Cape Town Design NPC)

*   Catharina’s lunch guests will be entertained by band Blacksmith on Sunday 24 November. (received via media release from Communication Services Africa)

*   Nose blog carries a controversial blogpost about an article written by James Conaway, which is extremely critical of Wine Spectator‘s Robert Parker’s 100 point wine evaluation scale, which he describes as a  ‘dying’ system.  The retirement of Parker, announced last year, has opened for a host of wine judges to evaluate wines, including Joe Roberts (1 Wine Dude), Jancis Robinson, Stephen Tanzer,  and Eric Asimov of the New York Times.  Conaway is quoted as follows:  ‘I’ve always thought the 100-scale a phony concoction devised to sell increasingly expensive wine to people who knew little about it. And because of the tastes of both Parker and the Spectator Americans got hooked on fruity, alcoholic wines unsuited to food – in general, a disaster. Those who made classically-structured wines were essentially penalized for making better wine in a different style, an intolerable situation’.

*   Long term weather forecasts for the United Kingdom show that a long harsh winter with above average snowfalls is forecast.  Whilst bad news for travellers from the UK, this may be good news for the local tourism industry, as they seek sun and heat in the next few months.

*   Durbanville Hills Wines visitors can enjoy a summer picnic basket with the winery’s Merlot Rosé, a selection of bread, chicken liver paté, dried fruit chutney, roasted Mediterranean vegetable couscous, basil pesto, feta, a choice of tarts, salad, olives, local cheeses, biscuits, preserves, fruit skewers, Turkish delight, and nougat.  The cost is R310 for two sharing. (received via media release from De Kock Communications)

*   Mulderbosch Cabernet Sauvignon Rosé is the Wine of the Week of cleveland.com, recommended to drink with Thanksgiving dinner.

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com  Twitter: @WhaleCottage