Tag Archives: Graham Beck Wines

WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 24/25 September

WhaleTalesTourism, Food, and Wine news headlines

*   Western Cape Tourism Minister Alan Winde has slammed the national Minister of Home Affairs Malusi Gigaba for the Immigration Regulations, at Public Hearings on their impact on the tourism industry held today and which continue tomorrow.  The media release from the Minister’s office says that ‘… Home Affairs had stuck the band-aid far from the wound: It became immediately clear to all that tests had not been done into the impact of these rules on law-abiding businesses and private citizens, versus those who do defy the rules. While the former are being pushed away, it appears the latter are unaffected. I have called on the National Minister, Mr Malusi Gigaba, to retract his new rules in toto until a  full investigation into their impact has been conducted, and until such time as we have the systems in place to back them up. He also needs to find the right mechanisms to address our problems’.  The cost to the economy of the Regulations is R10 billion and 21000 jobs, and contradict efforts to grow the tourism industry, he added.  The call-centre and film industries are severely effected too.   (received via media release from Minister Winde’s office)

*   Four Nobel Laureates have cancelled their trip to Cape Town to attend next month’s World Summit of Nobel Laureates, in reaction to the Department of Home Affairs refusing to provide the Dalai Lama with a visa to attend the Summit. The Continue reading →

WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 11 October

WhaleTalesTourism, Food, and Wine news headlines

*  SAA and Boeing are collaborating on a biofuels project, to create a ‘sustainable aviation biofuel supply chain‘, making SAA the first airline in Africa to become environmentally sustainable.

*   The new Cape Town cruise liner terminal should be completed in two years, and will be beneficial for tourism.

*   Despite the European air controller strike having been called off for yesterday, the French air controllers did commence their strike yesterday, affecting flights to/from France.

*   Hotel king Sol Kerzner has announced the development of a Continue reading →

Pendock picks Pinotage to open his new Wine Gallery at Taj Cape Town!

Pendock Wine Gallery full view Whale Cottage PortfolioNotorious Neil Pendock is launching his Pendock Wine Gallery at the Taj Cape Town hotel at 18h00, to many a most unusual move, in a minute space which would not allow more than a handful of persons to move inside the gallery at any time.  The Gallery concept and its link to the hotel’s Mint Restaurant is as quirky as Pendock is.

The roughly 2 by 4 meter space is half of the Edit[ed] hotel shop, and once inside Pendock’s Wine Gallery one can see inside the shop through a glass door, a design weakness, as it does not match the less-is-more sparse design of the Gallery.  Six ornate shelves will hold a bottle of wine each, according to a monthly theme, September being dedicated to Pinotage, but the choice of six is not explained, other than space constraints.  However, Pendock does pride himself on his selection, in that the six (Black Elephant Vintners, Diemersdal, Manley Continue reading →

Graham Beck Wines’ Ad Honorem range honours excellence and Mr Graham Beck!

Graham Beck Still Wines Whale Cottage Portfolio‘Excellence‘ is a word that forms part of the Graham Beck Wines’ pay-off line ‘The Origin of Excellence’ for its Still Wines range, and the company is true to its promise, in that its wine making as well as marketing activities attest to this.  While the ultra premium wine range is dedicated to the founder of the company, the late Mr Graham Beck, it also is a tribute to the fine wine making skills of the Still Wine Cellarmaster Erika Obermeyer, and the Marketing team’s excellent quality presentation of its wines, demonstrated in a series of three functions they had organised last week with the most perfect summer weather (in the middle of winter). The tastings were once again held at the Camps Bay Retreat, a magnificent location overlooking the waves crashing at Glen Beach.  The company has an incredible knack of choosing excellent weather days for its functions!

To know Erika is to know her wines, and while she comes across as a soft and gentle ambassador for her product range consisting of  The Game Reserve and Ad Honorem, she is a serious Continue reading →