Yesterday I posted an overview of the Media Visit day we spent in McGregor for Wacky Wine Weekend, my first taste of the wine event covering the Robertson Wine Valley, which continues until the end of today. It is the 14th Wacky Wine Weekend. I was unable to ascertain where the ‘Wacky’ part of the event name comes from! Continue reading →
Tag Archives: Rosendal
No mining in the Stellenbosch and Cape Town Winelands
For the past few weeks intense debate has taken place about the Government’s announcement that it is considering applying for prospecting rights on a number of Stellenbosch wine farms, including Saxenburg, Jordan, Langverwacht, Haasendal, Rosendal and Zevenwacht, and De Grendel, Highlands and Hooggelegen in the Tygerberg/Durbanville winelands area in Cape Town.
Intense lobbying by the Winelands Action Group has led to the announcement last Friday that the application for the prospecting rights has been withdrawn.
Gary Jordan, spokesperson for the Winelands Action Group, announced the good news about the withdrawal of the prospecting rights application on 19 March. The Winelands Action Group was supported by Cape Winemakers Guild, Wines of South Africa, the Stellenbosch Wine Route, the Durbanville Wine Route, the World Wide Fund (WWF) for Nature, the WWF Biodiversity and Wine Initiative, the Bottelary Conservancy, wine writers, heritage groups and the public to lobby the Department of Mineral Resources to withdraw the application for rights to prospect for tin, zinc, lead, lithium, copper, manganese and silver.
The mining rights application threatened the wine industry’s International Year of Biodiversity, and the new ‘Sustainable Wines SA” certification seal for wines, a world first.
Despite the announcement by the Winelands Action Group, reports remain contradictory about the withdrawal of the applications.
Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com