The dry weather and reduced rain in winter of 2016 is unusual, and will reduce the harvest in the Swartland, says Zakkie Bester, CEO and cellar master of Riebeek Cellars. The quality of the grapes may however be higher, with more concentrated flavours.
Bester shared his concern about the impact of the Continue reading →
The Sweet Service Award goes to the weather in Cape Town in the past ten days, which has been picture perfect, putting on its best face to give the thousands of holidaymakers a fantastic time in our beautiful city. As a guest house owner in Camps Bay, which gets badly hit by south-easters which can exceed 120 km/hour and can intimidate visitors not familiar with such strong wind speeds, we have been delighted, as our guests have been able to enjoy the beautiful view by sitting on our terrace for breakfast, and we have easily been able to get our laundry dry without fear that it blows away! The forecast rain is to return just as the bulk of Festive Season holiday-makers leave Cape Town on Sunday! Continue reading →
Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines
* Prince Harry arrived in Cape Town yesterday, on his way to the Antarctic, where he will accompany the British team in the Walk with the Wounded charity trek, on a 200 mile trek over 18 days, competing against Australian, Canadian and American teams. Poor weather has delayed Prince Harry’s flight to the Antarctic.
* Free wifi is now available at the Sea Point Pavilion, a service offered by the City of Cape Town as part of Cape Town’s status as World Design Capital 2014.
* The Naspers building is more than 50 years old, and once was Africa’s tallest building. One of the Cape Town World Design Capital 2014 projects is a competition to redesign the building, with a prize tag of R200000, as well as the implementation of the transformation, with a R15 million budget. (received via WDC Cape Town newsletter from the Cape Town Design NPC)
* Catharina’s lunch guests will be entertained by band Blacksmith on Sunday 24 November. (received via media release from Communication Services Africa)
* Nose blog carries a controversial blogpost about an article written by James Conaway, which is extremely critical of Wine Spectator‘s Robert Parker’s 100 point wine evaluation scale, which he describes as a ‘dying’ system. The retirement of Parker, announced last year, has opened for a host of wine judges to evaluate wines, including Joe Roberts (1 Wine Dude), Jancis Robinson, Stephen Tanzer, and Eric Asimov of the New York Times. Conaway is quoted Continue reading →
Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines
* Scandinavians are the happiest in the world, the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network World Happiness Report 2013 has found. Denmark is in first place with the happiest citizens in the world, followed by Norway, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Sweden.
* The future of tour operators is uncertain, following the e-Travel Africa Summit, which was held in Cape Town last week, the E-Tourism Frontiers organiser Damian Cook saying that their days are numbered, while SA Tourism’s Chief Marketing Officer Jan Hutton disagrees.
* The South African National Parks’ free entrance to all bar three of its national parks last week has met with criticism from COSATU (the Confederation of South African Trade Unions) in being discriminatory, benefiting those Continue reading →