Tag Archives: Dutch East India Company

WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 5 February

WhaleTalesTourism, Food, and Wine news headlines

*   Renowned international Chef Paul Bocuse is to open Ratatouille Bistro and the L’Aventure Totalement Toquée de Rémy ride at Disneyland Paris, inspired by the 2007 ‘Ratatouille‘ animated movie.  One will be able to taste Bocuse’s ratatouille.  It is Bocuse’s second restaurant in the theme park.

*   Cape Town has been awarded the honour of being the Earth Hour Capital 2014 for South Africa, and is competing against 33 Finalist cities from around the world for Global Earth Hour City 2014, reports the Cape Times.  Earth Hour will be held from 20h30 – 21h30 on 29 March, as many lights being switched off as possible in that hour.  The Earth Hour City Challenge has been created by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and  Local Governments for Sustainability.

*   The Company’s Garden is to return to its roots, in having a vegetable garden reinstated by the City of Cape Town in what was Cape Town’s first fruit and vegetable garden, established by the Dutch East India Continue reading →

New Cape Vintner Classification association of heavy weight wine estates launched!

Cape Vintner ClassificationA new association of independent wine estates belonging to industry heavy weights was launched at Ellerman House in its new Wine Gallery yesterday. Cape Vintner Classification (CVC) aims to build our country’s reputation as a producer of world class wines, and to ‘promote the Cape’s distinctive site specific wines‘, according to a report in fin24.

The association’s mouthful of a name, which does not seem customer driven, has a logo which includes the date 1659, the first year of wine production in the Cape, and creates an identity and logo look similar to the VOC (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Companje, or Dutch East India Company).

The association was formed by Johann Rupert, owner of Anthonij Rupert Wines, L’Ormarins, and Rupert & Rothschild, all in Franschhoek, which wants to introduce an accreditation system which gives wine buyers confidence in the integrity of the wine and its origin. It is said to be an association of individuals rather than of wine estates.

Rupert is critical of bulk wine exports and the damaging effect it has on our country’s wine reputation, and about some members of WIETA, the agricultural ethical trade initiative of South Africa.  The standards set for CVC will be higher than those of WIETA and Fairtrade.

Membership costs R16000 a year, and a minimum membership requirement is Continue reading →

MasterChef SA Season 2 episode 20: Predict who will be chopped, and win with Pierneef à La Motte!

Masterchef-sa-all-finalists-300x169MasterChef SA Season 2 is the talk of the country, and we have another four weeks of viewing to look forward to. To warm things up a little, we have launched two competitions, the first being a prediction of who will win MasterChef SA in episode 26.

We are also running a weekly prize for the correct prediction of who our readers think will be chopped out of the MasterChef SA. For the correct prediction of who will leave MasterChef SA in episode 20 on 14 August, Pierneef à La Motte has generously offered a R500 voucher for two, making the correct prediction. The restaurant was featured in episode 10, when Chef Chris Erasmus conducted a MasterClass, preparing a terrine.

Pierneef à La Motte opened almost three years ago, and has made the Eat Out Top 20 Restaurant shortlist two years running.  It pays homage to the master artist JH Pierneef Continue reading →

MasterChef SA Season 2 episode 18: Predict who will be chopped and win with Pierneef à La Motte!

masterchef-sa-all-finalistsMasterChef SA Season 2 is the talk of the country, and we have another four weeks of viewing to look forward to. To warm things up a little, we have launched two competitions, the first being a prediction of who will win MasterChef SA in episode 26.

We are also running a weekly prize for the correct prediction of who our readers think will be chopped out of the MasterChef SA. For the correct prediction of who will leave MasterChef SA in episode 18 on  7 August, Pierneef à La Motte has generously offered a R500 voucher for two, making the correct prediction. The restaurant was featured in episode 10, when Chef Chris Erasmus conducted a MasterClass, preparing a terrine.

Pierneef à La Motte opened almost three years ago, and has made the Eat Out Top 20 Restaurant shortlist two years running.  It pays homage to the master artist JH Pierneef Continue reading →