Once a year Blaauwklippen invites writers to attend a Zinfandel tasting, followed by a lunch. Last Thursday the focus for the tasting was Blaauwklippen Zinfandel Noble Late Harvest, held at the Cape Grace hotel. The launch of Triple Three Distillers Cut gin towards the end of the lunch will be covered in a stand-alone Blogpost, linked to a Triple Three gin tasting held at OpenWine on Monday.
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Tag Archives: Cape Grace Hotel
WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 18 July
Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines
* The Reserve Bank has increased the repo rate by 25 basis points, giving a new interest rate of 5,75%. Governor Gill Marcus blamed inflation for the rate increase.
* Brazil welcomed more than 1 million visitors during the Soccer World Cup, almost double the estimated 600000 travelers. Most tourists had never been to Brazil before, visiting from more than 200 countries. The infrastructure and tourism services generally, and the hospitality and cuisine specifically, were praised by the visitors. The soccer matches were seen by 3,4 million soccer fans in the stadia over the month-long event. Visitors stayed in Brazil for 13 days on average. Brazilians were good soccer fans too, more than 3 million travelling around their own country during the soccer tournament.
* Melanie Verwoerd has compiled a book ‘Our Madiba: Stories and Reflections from those who met Nelson Mandela‘, containing short stories of numerous persons that met the late Nelson Mandela, including Pieter-Dirk Uys/Evita Bezuidenhout, Adam Small, Francois Pienaar, Amanda Strydom, Sir Richard Attenborough, and many by Mrs Verwoerd herself.
* The Drinks Business and Intangible Business in the UK evaluated the world’s ‘most powerful Champagne and Continue reading →
Saronsberg wines: celebrating 10 years of consistency, fruit-driven elegance!
For the first time in the ten years of wine production, Saronsberg invited a group of wine writers to a tasting of its wines, followed by lunch at the Cape Grace Hotel. Saronsberg, with Rijks, is synonymous with Tulbagh.
Saronsberg was bought by Nick van Huyssteen in 2002, previously being the Twee Jonge Gezellen farms, which they renamed after the mountain in the area. A year later a large part of the then fruit 
farm was destroyed by a fire, making them start from scratch and planting vineyards on 51 hectare of the farm, making Nick’s dream of a wine farm come true, necessitating the building of a cellar. The day-time heat in Tulbagh was taken into consideration in the design of the cellar, we were told, to cool things down. Two years later they made the first wines.
It was the wedding of a niece three years ago that brought me to spend a Continue reading →
Cape Town Art Fair a marriage of art, food, and wine!
On Thursday evening 800 art lovers descended onto The Lookout in the V&A Waterfront for the opening of the first ever Cape Town Art Fair, the largest mega art exhibition ever held in Cape Town under one roof, with 40 galleries exhibiting 800 works of arts of 130 top artists. It was an excellent platform to enjoy the art of food, of visual art, and of wine art!
In a clever display design, the art galleries were given one, two, or three panels to display their artists’ work. While most pieces were described, I did not see prices, giving the exhibition a classy feel. It was more about meeting the gallery owners and representatives and connecting with them, based on the style of art they were exhibiting. Some of the galleries
, auctioneers, and artists at the Cape Town Art Fair include Strijdom van der Merwe, with an exhibit at the entrance to The Lookout and having recently created an impressive exhibit in honour of Nelson Mandela outside the Stellenbosch Town Hall; Strauss & Co; The AVA Gallery; holden manz collection; Whatiftheworld Gallery; Frank Joubert Art Centre; Stephan Welz & Co; Erdmann Continue reading →