Tag Archives: market

WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 19 August

WhaleTalesTourism, Food, and Wine news headlines

 *  Cape Town’s hosting of World Design Capital 2014 has benefited only a few Capetonians, says mega-moaner ANC City Councillor Tony Ehrenreich, while Grant Haskin, African Christian Democratic Party caucus leader, agrees.  Mayoral Committee member for Tourism, Events, and Marketing Garreth Bloor disputes this, many of the 450 design projects initiated this year having a longer-term legacy.  The City of Cape Town is spending R40 million on the project this year. 

*   Despite there being no cases of Ebola in South Africa, some tour groups from Asia have cancelled their trips to our country, for fear of the West Africa cases spreading to our country.

*   Artist Aleta Michaletos from Pretoria will exhibit 32 of her works at De Oude Drostdy, the home of Continue reading →

‘Hayden Quinn: South Africa’ episode 5: Whale of a time in Hermanus and Stanford, no mention of its wine stars!

Hayden Quinn Hermanus old harbour‘Hayden Quinn: South Africa’ focused on the Overberg last night, visiting Hermanus and Stanford, as well as Elgin, but this was not mentioned, being described as being just outside Hermanus!  It was a whale of an episode highlighting the Southern Right whale visitors, the sustainable apple and pear farming in Elgin, and Marianna’s sustainable restaurant in Stanford.  No mention was made however of Hermanus’ produce nor its world-renowned wines in the Hemel en Aarde Valley!

Hayden raved about the Southern Right whales, which visit  Hermanus’ Walker Bay from July, he said incorrectly (they arrive from the Antarctic from May onwards) until early December.  On the Facebook page of ‘Hayden Quinn: South Africa‘ it is incorrectly claimed that Hermanus is the ‘Whale Watching Capital of the World‘, copywriting nonsense.  Hermanus is however known as the offering the best land-based whale watching in the world, which is something different, and Hayden did say words to this effect in the episode!

To add some real adventure to his visit to Hermanus, Forest Adventures’ Clinton Lerm (infamous for wanting to change the name of the village to ‘Lermanus‘ when his family tried to take over the tourism management of the town, to their own Continue reading →

World Design Capital 2014: Audacia sulphite and preservative free wines inspired by design!

Audacia Merlot Whale Cottage PortfolioI was invited by Eclipse PR to attend a media briefing at the offices of Cape Town Design NPC, the company operating Cape Town’s role as World Design Capital 2014, on Thursday, the first such invitation, and received earlier in the day.  While it was thin on media news, and poorly attended, it was a most interesting session, in learning about the unique new sulphite and preservative free Audacia Wines using indigenous woods for its maturation, one of the about 450 registered World Design Capital 2014 projects.  Being an official project, it has raised the bar of Audacia’s design elements.

Co-owner Trevor Strydom is passionate about his pet project, and started talking to me about it in the reception whilst we were waiting for the meeting to start.  Audacia Wines is a partnership between Trevor and Paul Harris of Rand Merchant Bank and Ellerman House, describing itself as ‘The Red Wine Boutique Winery‘Audacia Trevor Strydom Whale Cottage Portfolio (2). Given how tough the wine industry is, and that there are no subsidies for farmers, it is hard to survive in the industry. Harris inspired Trevor with the quote: ‘change only occurs when the pain exceeds the joy‘, and advised him to find a point of difference for his brand, which currently is very well known for its weekend market off the R44.

Trevor read up about the law of winemaking and additives, and found that only two additives are allowed: enzymes, and wood.  He made his winemaker Michael van Niekerk make samples of red wines with different woods, given that every winemaker uses oak, whether as staves, chips, or powder, and they tried woods such as bluegum, acacia, and fig, to the amusement of van Niekerk. Being offered tea by his daughter one afternoon, she drinking a cup of rooibos tea with him, he had the brilliant idea to try rooibos wood (Aspalathus linearis), and they were delighted with the results, not being picked up on the nose nor on tasting the wine.  Whilst consulting his patent lawyer Mohammed Valli, he was initially sceptical whether a non-drinking lawyer could identify with his project.  He was most impressed with Valli’s conclusion that the anti-oxidant properties Continue reading →