Tag Archives: South African Sommeliers Association

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

imageTourism, Food, and Wine news headlines

*   The Design Indaba has announced that it will eliminate the Design Indaba Expo, largely due to the large drop in attendance this year, reaching the 2009 attendance level. The venue of the Design Indaba conference will change to Artscape, and the date will move from the last weekend in February. Owner Ravi Naidoo would like to take the event to Johannesburg and Durban too, as well as internationally.

*  South Africans traveling in Europe can now access data via an Orange Holiday Continue reading →

MasterChef SA Season 3 episode 10: Sommeliers judge Tapas and Nederburg 56Hundred pairings!

MasterChef 3 10 four teamsIn MasterChef SA episode 10 last night five top South African sommeliers were invited to evaluate the pairing of two Tapas dishes of each of four teams with two Nederburg wines.  The Red Team won the challenge, winning a Secret Reward (it looks like it could be lunch at The Pot Luck Club), while the Blue Team had the lowest score, and will go into an Elimination Test in episode 11.

In winning the best chicken dish with her Coq au Vin in episode 9 last week, Penny Fitchet was honoured with the pairing of the eight finalists.  She paired herself with Francois Zietsman and decided on Blue aprons.  Philippa Robinson and Roxi Wardman were paired in the Yellow Team; Abigail Mbalo and Mel Sutherland were paired in the Green Team; and Ian Young and Sipho Mdlankomo were Nederbrug 56Hundred MasterChefpaired into the Red Team.  Each team had 60 minutes to prepare each of two Tapas dishes, to be paired with Nederburg 56Hundred Chenin Blanc for the first dish, and Nederburg 56Hundred Cabernet Sauvignon for the second dish.  We had learnt in a previous Season of MasterChef that the 56Hundred range was named after the price of 5600 guilders which was paid by Philippus Wolvaart to buy the farm which he named Nederburg.  Invited Sommeliers were Neil Grant, chairman of the South African Continue reading →

WOSA Sommelier World Cup clever way to market South African wines!

WOSA Sommelier Cup Will Predhomme Whale Cottage PortfolioYesterday I spent a most entertaining afternoon at the Grande Roche hotel in Paarl, to observe the last phase of the Wines of South Africa (WOSA) Sommelier World Cup competition, the announcement and evaluation of the Top 3, and the awarding of the prize to the winning sommelier Will Predhomme.

The invited guests were the twelve finalists for the Sommelier World Cup, media representatives from the USA (I sat next to Rebecca Canan from the Terroirist Blog), Sweden, and Belgium, local writers, the local and international sommelier judges, and WOSA staff from its international offices as well as from its head office in Stellenbosch.   After a welcome glass of wine, we sat down for lunch at Bosman’s, and it was clear to see why this Continue reading →

WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 3 September

WhaleTalesTourism, Food, and Wine news headlines

*   The Mutual & Federal Agri Wellington Wine Route’s ‘Quest for the Best’  is coming to Cape Town tomorrow at the Southern Sun Waterfront Hotel, at the cost of R60.  Wellington wines will be offered for tasting, with the recently selected ‘Quest for the Best’ Top Ten Wines and Top Spirits. (received via Wellington Wine Route newsletter)

*   There are more than 40000 hotel rooms being built in Africa in the next four years, 10% of these in Lagos in Nigeria alone.  No South African city appears on the top hotel room construction list.

*   Retail sales only grew by 1,5% in the past year, and it is the low income shoppers who are shopping less and closer to home.   This has affected retailers at the bottom end Continue reading →