The Stellenbosçh Wine Festival is about to get the juices flowing at Coetzenburg Sports Grounds this afternoon, in the capital of the wine industry, and runs until Sunday.
A jam-packed program promises: Continue reading →
Tag Archives: Stellenbosch Wine Festival
WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 10 February
Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines
* The Los Angeles Times recommends the One&Only Cape Town as one of ‘Five fabulous, flirty retreats for Valentine’s Day’. It describes Cape Town as the ‘…continent’s hottest happening city, and One & Only is the place to be for luxurious lodging‘, with three restaurants, including Nobu, the Neo boutique selling ‘South Africa’s hippest designer fashions‘, and an award-winning spa. It recommends eating at The Test Kitchen, Kalk Bay, Robben Island, and an art tour with gallery owner João Ferreira.
* It is rare to be able to read a story by UK wine journalist and judge Jancis Robinson without subscribing to her website or to that of the Financial Times. However she has graciously shared details of her trip to the North West Cape, in the Olifants River area, where they viewed 40 – Continue reading →
Stellenbosch squeezes most out of its 2015 Wine Festival, poor website!
Billed as a three-day event but stretching over a week, the Stellenbosch Wine Festival presented by Pick ‘n Pay draws to a close today, with a feast of events offered. It is the largest wine festival in the country, and the oldest. The media blurb proudly brags that the Stellenbosch Wine Festival presents the best of Stellenbosch’s ‘great wine, gourmet food, breathtakingly beautiful nature, and performances by some of South Africa’s most popular musicians‘.
Held at the Coetzenburg Sports Grounds since Friday, 200 wines of 148 wine estates that make up the Stellenbosch Wine Routes are available to taste, creating a ‘virtual wine route‘. The Pick ‘n Pay Wine Shop will sell Stellenbosch wines to drink at the Festival, to take home, or to ship back to one’s home destination. Winemakers from Waterford Estate, Spier, Kleine Continue reading →
WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 5 December
Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines
* Wine judge and writer Tim James, and winner of a number of wine writing competitions, including the inaugural Du Toitskloof Wine Writer of the Year as well as the Franschhoek Literary Festival wine writing award, has expressed his strongest criticism of the announcement of the 2014 Franschhoek Literary Festival wine writing competition. It has been announced that the competition and its prize money will be split into short writing (less than 1500 words) and long writing (3000 – 4000 words). No award will be given to any writing submitted of between 1500 – 3000 words! Earlier this year the Franschhoek Literary Festival, and the convenor of its wine writing judging committee John Maytham, were lambasted when they chose to not award the prize at all, stating that no entry was of a good enough standard. (Note: the category definitions have subsequently been changed to under 1000 words, and 1000 – 4000 words)
* Only 8% of South African tourism and hospitality businesses plan to appoint more staff, according to tourism consultants Grant Thornton, compared to 25% by their global counterparts.
* South African restaurant brands operating in the United Arab Emirates include Nando’s, Butcher Shop, Meat & Co, Mug & Bean, and Debonairs Pizza.
* Argentina is encouraging its citizens to stay home with a punitive 35% tax on all credit card payments made outside the country, to protect its monetary reserves.
* The Stellenbosch Wine Festival will take place from 24 January – 2 Continue reading →