Tukwini Mandela | WhaleTales Blog by Chris von Ulmenstein

Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines

* A TripAdvisor TripBarometer survey has found that hotel guests expect free wifi, free parking, and free breakfast. Items which guests are most likely to take home with them are toiletries, tea and coffee, towels, clothes hangers, and TV remote batteries. Guests are interested in learning more about the culture of the inhabitants of the town in which they are visiting, in visiting a unique icon of the town, trying new food but also wanting to eat food from their home country, as well as watching TV and movies in their home language.

* London hotels have received the lowest ratings of hotels in 30 European destinations on the measure of recommending a hotel to others, according to a survey in the last 24 months on bookings made via Expedia, scoring even more poorly than Paris and Nice. Berlin tops the recommendation rating.

* Grande Provence in Franschhoek is celebrating its 2014 harvest with a Harvest Festival on 22 February, starting the day with coffee and muffins, followed by a talk by the vine grower, winetasting, and then a country feast. Cost is R450. (received via e-mail from Grande Provence)

* It is sad to see how the death of Mr Mandela is being used by his daughter Dr Maki Mandela and his granddaughter Tukwini Mandela to market their House of Mandela wines, saying that his legacy lives on through their wines! Continue reading →

Former President Nelson Mandela’s daughter Makaziwe and grandaughter Tukwini launched the House of Mandela range of wines at the South Beach Wine and Food Festival 2013 in Miami last week, utilising Fairview, Hartenberg, Thelema and Villiera to ‘produce their grapes‘, reports The Miami Herald!

Mother and daughter have vastly differing backgrounds, Makaziwe being an anthropologist and the Chairman of the company. Tukwini is the Marketing Director, having previously worked as head of marketing at ABSA Wealth and Private Bank. A suggestion by a family friend led to the new venture over two years ago, especially as, according to Tukwini, South Africa is ‘essentially a brown-bag, Foster’s-drinking country‘! Their different backgrounds were useful in researching the wine industry, ‘digging beyond the soil’, and finding symbolism in the winding vines, ‘which is really about the challenges of life. Yet it produces good fruit. The struggle for freedom is just like that’, said Tukwini. The company logo in the shape of a bee symbolizes “humanity, compassion, sharing and ‘one who is brave enough to challenge the status quo'”, reports the Huffington Post.

Interviewing 70 wine estates, their choice fell on the four family-owned wine estates ‘with good affirmative-action practices’, making two wine portfolios. The Royal Reserve collection consists of a Fairview Shiraz 2007, Hartenberg Cabernet Sauvignon 2008, and Thelema Chardonnay 2009, in a price range of $48 – $51. The Thembu collection (all 2012 vintage) consists of a Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz, and Pinotage, selling at around R120 per bottle. Villiera makes the MCC. A sweet wine is on the cards, a favourite of their father and grandfather. Part of the proceeds of the Thembu collection sales will be ploughed back to the benefit of the farm workers.

House of Mandela, www.houseofmandela.com No Social Media nor telephone contact details available.

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Twitter: @WhaleCottage