Tag Archives: screwcaps

Graham Beck Wines celebrates 25 year Silver Jubilee with ‘Bubbles’!

April 23, 2015

Yesterday 30 or so writers, mostly from Cape Town, dedicated a full 10 hour day to travel to Graham Beck Wines in Robertson, to celebrate its 25 year Silver Jubilee with a vertical tasting of more than 25 Cap Classiques and base wines which go into the making of the Graham Beck range of MCCs. The event was also a salute to Pieter ‘Bubbles’ Ferreira, in having worked at Graham Beck for 25 years already.

Always organised, PR consultant Nicolette Waterford had organised a Le Quartier Français snack pack with water and juice for us for the two-hour bus trip. We arrived to a misty day in Robertson, but the day became sunny and warm. We were welcomed by the Graham Beck staff, and by Pieter with his trademark bubbly shirt in particular, and it felt a lot like Pieter’s ‘birthday’ party (he did recently celebrate a special milestone birthday). Continue reading →

WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 2 April

April 2, 2015

Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines

* ‘Madiba’s Journey’ is a new GPS-enabled App which allows one to follow in the footsteps of the late Nelson Mandela, directing one to sites associated with one of our country’s greatest leaders. The App was designed for SA Tourism and the Nelson Mandela Foundation.

* An Australian blind tasting of red wines under screw cap and cork by international wine judges has ‘voted in favour of the expressions aged under screwcap, a particularly impactful result to occur on Italian soil, where this closure was until recently banned from use in many of the country’s most prestigious wines such as Brunello di Montalcino, and still remains controversial’. Australian winemakers are increasingly using screwcaps on their wine Continue reading →

WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine industry: 2 December

December 2, 2014

Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines

* Eskom says that loadshedding may be over for this year, and will be doing further maintenance of power stations over the festive season. Eskom spokesperson Andrew Etzinger said: ‘Heading into the festive period, we will be doing a lot of maintenance, although the demand for electricity will be lighter as well. All in all, I think on balance we’ll do our best to avoid load shedding but we can’t rule it out unfortunately’. The public’s use of electricity will determine whether there will be loadshedding this month, he added.

* The Guala Closures Group is offering a range of liners for its screwcap wine bottle closures. Its Oenoseal was developed over the past two years, offering various levels of oxygenation, or lack of, depending on the type of wine bottled. Wine producers can select the best liner for their screwcaps without changing the settings on the bottling lines.

* Eleven new hotel projects are in the pipeline in Cape Town for the next four years, with total of just over 2000 rooms Continue reading →

Aluminium closures increasingly used for wines instead of cork!

November 10, 2014

An invitation from Waterford Communications to attend a function of the Guala Closures Group, the European Aluminium Foil Association (EAFA), and South African aluminium producer Hulamin sounded interesting in terms of content. Eat Out Top 20 Restaurant shortlist Jardine at Jordan as function venue was an added attraction. A passionate case was made for the benefits of using aluminium closures for wine bottling.

On arrival we received a glass of Jordan The Real McCoy Riesling 2014 and duck paté canapés, which were served with passion fruit jelly, and prune purée, on brioche. Buffalo milk mozzarella, confit tomato and basil was also served as a canapé. We sat at large round tables, covered with brown table cloths and a white overlay. We received a bread platter, which included ciabatta, Cape seedloaf, and vetkoek, served with porcini butter, watercress pesto (with overpowering garlic), and aoili.