The members of the Food & Wine Bloggers’ Club have been very fortunate to have been wined and dined in the past eighteen months of the Club’s existence. This month is no different, and our visist to Steenberg Vineyards, and to their Bistro Sixteen82, is likely to be a very popular event. The meeting will feature two speakers, being Anetha Homan, Sales and Marketing Manager of Steenberg Vineyards, and Chef Brad Ball of Bistro Sixteen82. 
Anetha Homan has been the Sales and Marketing Manager of Steenberg Vineyards for the past four years, and worked at Constantia Uitsig for eight years prior to that. She graduated with a BA Communications at the University of Stellenbosch. Steenberg’s winemaker is JD Pretorius. Steenberg is committed to Social Media, having the Totally Stoned Steenberg Blog, which includes wine news and news about its restaurant Bistro Sixteen82. Anetha says that Social Media allows Steenberg to communicate with its customers in an informal way, and it allows the wine estate to receive feedback from their customers too.
Chef Brad Ball is destined for great things, and deserves to be in the Eat Out Top 20 restaurant list, and is a strong contender for the newly created Bistro category. Chef Brad comes from a foodie family, in that his mom managed a catering company. It was a heavenly Tuna Nicoise that inspired him to apply for his first position as chef, and he was appointed at Simon’s Table in Simonstown 14 years ago. Two years later he went to London, where he worked with Chef Patron Rowley Leigh, known as the father of modern British cuisine, at Kensington Place. 
It is here that his love for Bistro-style food was born. On his return to Cape Town he worked as Head Chef at Olympia Café and Deli, followed by the Post House Hotel & Restaurant in Greyton, Pastis Brasserie in Constantia, and at The River Café. He started his own catering consultancy before he joined Steenberg Vineyards to open the new restaurant Bistro Sixteen82. Chef Brad believes in ‘simple is better’, and ‘local is lekker’. He is inspired by Japanese cuisine and Provencal food. He puts his heart and soul into whatever he does, delivering passion and pizzaz in the food that he serves. Bistro Sixteen82 is probably best known for its Friday Steenburger, and Beef Tataki.
The Food & Wine Bloggers’ Club was formed to reflect the tremendous growth in and power of food and wine blogs in forming opinion about food, restaurants and wines. Most bloggers do not have any formal training in blogging, and learnt from others. The Food & Wine Bloggers’ Club aims to foster this informal training, and to serve as a social media networking opportunity.
Anetha and Chef Brad will talk for about half an hour each about the Steenberg Blog, and what they have learnt about blogging. The Club will give fledgling as well as experienced bloggers the opportunity to learn from each other and to share their knowledge with others. Attendees can ask questions, and get to know fellow bloggers. The Club meetings are informal and fun. Anetha Homan will lead bloggers through a tasting of the Steenberg wines, while snacks will be prepared by Chef Brad.
Future Food & Wine Bloggers’ Club meetings have been organised as follows:
* 19 October: Roger and Dawn Jorgensen of Jorgensen’s Distillery, and Anthony Gird and Michael de Klerk of Honest Chocolate, with a chocolate and potstill brandy tasting, at Haas Coffee on Rose Street.
* 12 November: Visit to new Leopard’s Leap tasting room and cookery school in Franschhoek
Food & Wine Bloggers’ Club, Wednesday 21 September, 6 – 8 pm: Steenberg Vineyards, Steenberg, Cape Town. Bookings can be made by e-mailing Chris at whalecot@iafrica.com. The cost of attendance is R100. Twitter: @FoodWineBlogClu Facebook: click here.
Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com. Twitter:@WhaleCottage
1WineDude wine blogger Joe Roberts recently blogged about Wine Blogging, referring to the results of a 3-year study by the Burgundy School of Business, entitled ‘World Wide Wines: Digital Writing on Wine’. The key finding of the study was that wine consumers and wine bloggers are one and the same, and that wine blogging is far from dead, Roberts writes.
