It was a multi-Award day on Monday this week, with both American Express (for the Western and Southern Cape), as well as the Gourmet Guide (National) announcing their 2020 Restaurant Award winners. A week earlier American Express had announced its Gauteng, Free State, and KwaZulu-Natal Awards. There were many similarities in the winners, yet some strange winners in the American Express Dining awards documented in this post. Continue reading →
Tag Archives: American Express
SA’s first Michelin-style Gourmet Guide to be launched!
I had heard from restaurants that a new ‘Gourmet Guide‘ is to published, with a listing and evaluation of our country’s Top 100 restaurants. The evaluation of the restaurants is to be done on the basis of the Michelin-system, with unidentified ‘inspectors’ visiting restaurants Continue reading →
Rossouw’s Restaurants confirms dominance of Western Cape restaurants in new 2016 Restaurant Guide!
It was a surprise that the Rossouw’s by Diners Club International 2016 South African Restaurant Guide was launched on such a low-key level at the Platter’s Wine Guide launch in Cape Town on Thursday evening. They might wish that they hadn’t launched it at all!
Publishing Editor JP Rossouw showed us the cover of the book briefly when he revealed the new blue cover of the 2016 Platter’s Wine Guide. That was it! Last year the Restaurant Guide (with twenty 5-star restaurants then) was surprisingly Continue reading →
WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 12/13 July
Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines
* Sales of alcoholic beverages in the UK have decreased by 6% in the last week of the five-week World Cup period compared to the same period a year ago, as interest in the soccer event has decreased in the last week of the tournament, despite reaching close to £ 1 billion in sales. Sales in the first three weeks of the tournament showed an increase, however. Champagne and sparkling wine showed the strongest growth in the past month. Cider sales decreased by 11% compared to a year ago. England’s early World Cup exit and better weather in July 2013 have been the cause of the beverage sales decrease.
* A Wine Intelligence study finds that UK wine drinkers almost equally accept cork and screw cap closures, at 40% each; Australians prefer screw cap wines (55%) to cork (38%); and in the USA cork is strongly preferred (64%) compared to screw caps (21%). The choice of closure is dictated by image and practicality, more than ‘scientific’ reasons of helping the wine to breathe, stifling ageing, or preventing spoilage.
* A new MasterCard Multi-currency Cash Passport has been launched, and is available at ABSA and American Express Continue reading →