Tag Archives: Nederburg Auction

Praise from USA wine writer for SA wine initiatives, addressing sales bottlenecks!

Winelands WinetimesSouth Africa’s wine industry has a great fan in American wine economist Mike Veseth, who has visited our country twice in the past two years.  In his latest article, the third about his trip earlier this year, he praises the wine industry for dealing with the ‘bottlenecks it faces in selling its wines in the USA.  According to him, the design of the South African flag can be seen to reflect a bottleneck too!

Veseth visited in 2012, as the guest of Nederburg, addressing the Auction as guest speaker. He observed the wine industry then and compared it with his observations of his visit this year. He writes that it can be easier to make good wines than it is to sell and market them, and this applies to selling in the USA in particular.  He noted the increased confidence of our winemakers, and their ‘concrete plans‘ to tackle the marketing challenges, comparing his last two visits.  His observations of our wine industry over two visits are as follows:

1.   The leadership of the Winelands in Wine Tourism globally, a fantastic accolade. Continue reading →

WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 9 October

WhaleTalesTourism, Food, and Wine news headlines

*   Chenin Blanc and Ken Forrester are honoured by Joe Roberts, American 1 Wine Dude blogger and key-note speaker at the Nederburg Auction this year!

*  HRH Prince Edward and Sophie, Countess of Wessex, are attending  a dinner function at Grande Provence tomorrow (10 October), which means that the wine estate will be closed.  (via Twitter)

*   Western Cape Minister of Community Safety Dan Plato has vowed to personally check on alleged drug dealing on Long Street, and whether there is visible policing and security on this notorious party strip in Cape Town, responding to an EWN news report.

*   Eight beaches and two marinas in Cape Town have been Continue reading →

WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 12 September

WhaleTalesTourism, Food, and Wine news headlines

*   Traveling should be easier, and barriers to entry by tourists should be reduced.  E-passports have been proposed for 2020, Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk said when he addressed the e-Tourism Africa Summit in Cape Town earlier this week.  ‘We need to address the present outdated system of always having to go to Embassies, filling in forms and standing in queues. In a few years times this will be non-existent’, Van Schalkwyk said.  He also highlighted that industry taxes should be regulated, to make travel more viable and accessible.

*   Cape Town blogger Kamini Pather wins MasterChef SA Season 2, against tight competition from Leandri van der Wat !

*   Travel by young persons has decreased dramatically in the past six years, from 75% in 2007 to 47% currently, to focus on improving their CVs, a study by the World Youth Student and Educational Travel Confederation has found.

*   Col’Cacchio has introduced a Mobi-friendly Loyalty program, offering R20 Continue reading →