Tag Archives: Franschhoek Uncorked

Franschhoek Uncorked set to get the corks popping this weekend!

Franschhoek Uncorked‘Franschhoek Uncorked‘ has taken some time to take off, having been plagued by poor weather in the initial years.  It has become a fun event on the Franschhoek events calendar, and now the seventh annual event attracts wine lovers to the village come rain or shine.  This coming weekend (27 and 28 September)  21 wine estates will be attracting visitors to their farms, to show them how unique each of them is.

Each wine estate will offer tastings of their wines, included in the R120 fee for the weekend, foods for sale, some with art exhibitions, as well as musical entertainment, a unique offering by each farm.

The following wine farms will be showcased:

*   Babylonstoren: wine and olive tastings, cellar tours, and a 3-course Pizza meal (R200)

*   Noble Hill: Mexican foods, Hitichino Japanese craft beer, and wine tasting

*   Rupert & Rothschild:  tasting of Rupert & Rothschild wines as well as of Rothschild wines.  Foods offered include French Continue reading →

WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 26/27 October

WhaleTalesTourism, Food, and Wine news headlines

*   Auslese Summer Sessions will pair tapas dishes created by Aubergine owner Chef Harald Bresselschmidt, fine wines, and good jazz every second Thursday evening, from 21 November onwards. (received from Auslese via e-mail)

*   The 325th anniversary of the arrival of the French Huguenots was celebrated with a special concert, ranging from classical music to cabaret, last night at the Endler Hall. (received from the University of Stellenbosch via e-mail)

*  Tour operator ‘Great Safaris’  has launched a ‘South African Culinary Treasures Journey’ 7 day tour of the Winelands and Cape Town, which includes learning about wine blending, food and wine pairing, bread baking, and a cooking class ‘in Cape Malay‘!

*   The South African Pinotage restaurant is opening in Beijing.

*   Scandinavia, Russia and the United Kingdom could become the main vine growing regions in Europe by 2050.

*   ‘Franschhoek Uncorked’, the annual event in which the Continue reading →

New Cape Town Tourism CEO Enver Duminy accommodates his members, listening and learning!

enver-duminy-cape-town-tourismOn his 46th day in the hot seat as CEO of Cape Town Tourism, Enver Duminy was generous with his time yesterday, and we covered a lot of ground, each interviewing the other! I was impressed with his ability to listen, really wanting to know my views on tourism and Cape Town Tourism, even though many of them have been documented on this blog.

Enver and his predecessor Mariette du Toit-Helmbold could not be more different. Enver is very much quieter, more reserved, gentle,  interested in others and their views, is not opinionated in presuming to know all the answers, is friendly, is diplomatic, is not focused on himself but on his job to attract more tourists to Cape Town, and surprised me when he gave me a hug on leaving instead of shaking my hand!  He didn’t want the interview to be about him alone, and he took the opportunity to ask about me as well, and I realised that he knew little about me (he did know that I enjoyed MasterChef SA, and has read this blog, being intrigued about how I see things so differently!).

Enver grew up in Mitchell’s Plain, studied Computer Sciences and Mathematical Statistics, and his first job took him to IBM in Johannesburg.  He returned to Cape Town, working at ESKOM, running a computer training company with friends, working at Nedbank in their ATM, software and home loans departments, and at Integer, a home loans company.  All along his career he has done management courses, believing in ‘educating yourself’, but with a focus on ‘how to apply the knowledge‘, as ‘anything is possible‘, he says.  He is currently doing a Continue reading →

September 2013: a month of food, wine, arts, sport, and cultural Festivals!

Franschhoek Uncorked Graham BeckA number of Food and Wine, sport, as well as art and cultural Festivals have been organised for September, and one can attend a festival on almost every day of the month!  It appears a shame that so many Festivals overlap throughout the month.

We list some of them, and will update the list during the month:

31 August:         Bot River Spring Festival

1 September:    Bot River Spring Festival

5 September:    ‘Chefs who Share’ gala charity dinner, City Hall, Cape Town/First Thursday Cape Town art galleries open until 21h00 in the city centre.

6 September:   Tru-Cape Windgat Festival and Kogelberg Mountain Challenge /Tulbagh Spring Arts Festival/Darling Voorkamerfest Continue reading →