Tag Archives: Ramsay Media

WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 17 February

WhaleTalesTourism, Food, and Wine news headlines

*   MasterChef USA is said to have been ‘cooking up a lie’, Chef Gordon Ramsay giving contestants cooking lessons prior to the filming of episodes, according to the revelations on the blog of a former contestant on the show.   The producers responded that each contestant has access to information and to training. ‘Each home cook is given professional training before the challenges to ensure they can cook something decent when they start recording’, it was written.   No such training has been given to MasterChef UK contestants however.

*   Minister of Tourism Marthinus van Schalkwyk has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with his counterpart in Saudi Arabia.  No further details about the agreement are available.

*   The Franschhoek Wine Tram has grown from strength to strength in its first year of operation, having added buses on two routes, and still running the Tram to Grande Provence and Continue reading →

WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 6 November

WhaleTalesTourism, Food, and Wine news headlines

*   Angola and Nigeria will be the two African countries on which Wines of South Africa (WOSA) will focus its attention, says new CEO Siobhan Thompson

*   Jancis Robinson chose two South African cultivars, out of a total of seven,  at a New York tasting of  ‘unusual grape varieties that typify an ongoing trend in wine to re-visit traditional grapes in their historical homes around the world‘, being Chenin Blanc and Cabernet Franc.

*   The price of petrol has decreased by 28 cents a liter.

*   Huffington Post Travel recommends ten wine destinations around the world, and includes ‘Cape Town’, but elaborates that the Cape Winelands is meant, and Stellenbosch, Paarl, and Franschhoek in particular. Groot Constantia is recommended for a visit.   The other destinations are the Yarra Valley in Australia, Napa and Sonoma in the USA, Okanagan in Canada, Bordeaux in France, Finger Lakes in the USA, Mendoza in Argentina, Willamette Valley in the USA, Tuscany in Italy, and Barcelona in Spain.

*   New World wines from New Zealand, Australia, Chile, Argentina and South Africa make up 30% of world wine exports, states the Morgan Stanley report.

*  A bottle made from recycled paper and weighing only 65 Continue reading →

WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 23 July

WhaleTalesTourism, Food, and Wine news headlines

*     South Africa has two of CNN Travel Top 10 golf courses in Africa:  The Gary Player Country Club at Sun City, and the Fancourt Links course.

*   All Gold is South African’s best loved brand, and the top 10 brand list includes nine FMCG household brands and the Clicks Club Card.   No beverages other than Coca Cola feature on the Top 10 list, and no wine nor beer brands feature on the Top 30 list, in a study conducted about 8000 brands amongst 15000 South Africans.

*    Durbanville Hills is offering a tasting on 22 August of Sauvignon Blancs and Merlots, from Durbanville Hills, Chile, France, New Zealand and Australia,  led by cellar master Martin Moore.  The tasting will be followed by a Thai green curry dinner. (via De Kock Communications)

*   Madame Zingara’s ‘The Miracle Tour’ is extending its run in the V&A Waterfront to include the rest of winter, the company has announced by e-mail today. Continue reading →

Telkom Sweet Service and Ramsay Media Sour Service Awards!

The Sweet Service Award goes to Telkom in Franschhoek, for fixing a fault on a fax line on the same day, within three hours of logging the fault via their online fault reporting service.  It was the first use of the online service, and a sms and e-mail were sent to confirm the fault reporting, and provided a reference number.  Such good Telkom service is a rarity.  The Telkom technician was not the friendliest staff member we have dealt with, but the fact that the fault was reacted to so quickly was of business benefit.  The technician tried to blame the fax machine for the fault, but he had not plugged in the cable correctly! An alarm cable has caused the fault.

The Sour Service Award goes to Ramsay Media, for its poor service in renewing a magazine subscription.  The company does not proactively invoice its existing subscribers once their subscription expires, choosing to send a renewal reminder instead.  One then has to request that an invoice be sent. Despite the request for a posted invoice, none has been received to date. Communication with Nona and Werner in the Subscriptions call centre was unprofessional and slow. Declining magazine subscriptions are no surprise when the company makes it so difficult and unattractive to renew susbcriptions.  A message left three days ago for Werner the CFO has not yet been responded to.

The WhaleTales Sweet & Sour Service Awards are presented every Friday on the WhaleTales blog.  Nominations for the Sweet and Sour Service Awards can be sent to Chris von Ulmenstein at info@whalecottage.com.   Past winners of the Sweet and Sour Service Awards can be read on the Friday posts of this blog, and in the WhaleTalesnewsletters on the www.whalecottage.com website.