A surprise announcement yesterday was that Graham Beck Wines will consolidate all the wine interests in its Graham Beck brand portfolio in its Méthode Cap Classique (MCC) range. The Graham Beck MCC focus will be supported by a ‘substantial financial investment‘, its CEO Chris du Toit has announced. Continue reading →
Tag Archives: The Game Reserve
Chenin Blanc ‘Summer Showcase’ with a view at Meloncino!
The Chenin Blanc Association hosts a tasting of its top members’ wines twice a year, to match the summer or winter season. Last week a tasting of 25 top Chenin Blancs was followed by a summery Italian-inspired lunch with a view onto Table Mountain at Meloncino in the V & A Waterfront.
The tasting of the 25 Chenin Blancs was divided into five groups of five wines, and was led by Jeff Grier of Villiera, a gentle good off-the-cuff speaker, being so good with his notes that he often knew more about the wines 
than was shared by the winemakers. Jeff stood in for Ken Forrester, Chairman of the Chenin Blanc Association, who spends a lot of his time marketing his wines in the USA. What makes these events great is that writers can meet a number of the winemakers at the table, getting to know them a little better, the Simonsig (Hannes Meyer), Ayama (Liezel Delport), and Rijk’s (Pieter Waal) representatives sitting Continue reading →
World Design Capital 2014 Gala Dinner not reflective of Cape Town design excellence!
This is one of the hardest blogposts I have written, with a moral dilemma of being an invited guest at what one expected to be a social highlight for the year. The Gala Dinner for Cape Town hosting World Design Capital 2014 turned out to be an embarrassment in poor organisation and food! We trust that Cape Town Design NPC, the company operating the year-long design accolade, will forgive its frankness.
The Gala Dinner was the first substantial function organised for World Design Capital 2014, the New Year’s Eve concert having been an event shared with the City of Cape Town, and was intended to be for all the people of Cape Town. Only 270 guests were invited to the Gala Dinner, and included Cape Town Mayor de Lille and Stellenbosch Mayor Conrad Sidego; Minister of Science and Technology Derek Hanekom; sponsor company representatives such as Media24 Chairman Ton Vosloo; members of the diplomatic corps; top designers; members of the Board of Cape Town Design NPC; and a large media contingent, both local and international. Given the calibre of the guests, the fact that almost everything was wrong with the evening was an embarrassing disaster! The dress code was formal with a touch of yellow, given the World Design Capital 2014 colour for the year. The men seemed better in adding the yellow touches via gold or yellow ties and bow ties, while the ladies struggled to find something yellow in their wardrobes, including Cape Town Design NPC CEO Alayne Reesberg. Surprising
was how many guests wore jeans and open shirts, despite the dress code specification.
The dinner was set up in a temporary structure for the Guild Fair, the decor exhibition which is running in conjunction with the Cape Town Art Fair at The Lookout in the V&A Waterfront. Tables seating 20 guests each were set up in long rows, with no 
decor other than sets of three yellow/gold Monkeybiz beaded animals on the tables. The last time I was in the neighbouring The Lookout venue was for the Eat Out Top 10 Restaurant Awards in November, and the New Media Publishing team had done a fantastic job in decorating the massive venue. On Friday night there were no design features at all, and lighting was big industrial spotlights, Continue reading →
WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 12 November
Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines
* One of the most interesting wines to be launched recently must be the Hidden Valley Shipwreck Shiraz 2009, for which the wine barrels were placed in the ocean at Cape Agulhas during maturation. (received via Manley Communications)
* Heston Blumenthal is opening a restaurant in the new terminal in Heathrow, due to open in June next year.
* Graham Beck’s The Game Reserve wine range is dedicated to conservation, and each of the wines in the range is associated with one of the indigenous animals and plants on their wine estate in Robertson. For each bottle sold in the range a contribution is made to the Wilderness Foundation, neck labels sharing this support of nature, wildlife, and wilderness, and its conservation. ‘The Game Reserve range of wines symbolizes our unwavering commitment to restoring balance. The symbiosis between our wines, our people and the earth is the golden thread which runs throughout all our actions. Leaving a lasting legacy for tomorrow means we’re duty bound to take fundamental and far-reaching steps today – a responsibility we’re deeply passionate about’, says the Waterford Communications media release on behalf of Graham Beck.
* Emoya Luxury Hotel & Spa in Bloemfontein is offering its clients a unique ‘Shanty Town Experience‘, whereby one can stay in a shanty with underfloor heating and wifi, in their game reserve! The writer’s definition of a shanty town (with ‘poor people’) is insulting!
* The first cruise liner of the season, MSC Opera, arrived in Cape Town Continue reading →