{"id":11436,"date":"2010-08-19T11:26:22","date_gmt":"2010-08-19T09:26:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whalecottage.com\/blog\/?p=11436"},"modified":"2010-08-30T00:56:58","modified_gmt":"2010-08-29T22:56:58","slug":"food-wine-writing-explodes-in-cape-town-bloggers-told","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chrisvonulmenstein.com\/blog\/cape-town\/food-wine-writing-explodes-in-cape-town-bloggers-told\/","title":{"rendered":"Food & Wine writing explodes in Cape Town, bloggers told"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The Food & Wine Bloggers’ Club meeting held at Brio restaurant\u00a0last night was a huge success, with five Haut Espoir wines tasted, and Rob Armstrong of the wine estate and Sam Wilson of Food24 <\/strong>informing and entertaining the food and wine bloggers attending.\u00a0\u00a0 There were lots of laughs, and bloggers attending participated in the discussion. \u00a0Cape Town was highlighted by Rob as seeing an “explosion” of food and wine writing, mainly via bloggers, which was not evident in other areas in South Africa.<\/p>\n

Sam Wilson, Editor-in-Chief of Food24<\/strong>, Woman24<\/strong> and Parent 24<\/strong>, impressed by doing her presentation using an iPad, which most bloggers had not seen before.\u00a0 She challenged bloggers to find their “barrier of authenticity”, in that each blogger should define how far one can go, who one is via one’s blog, and how much of one’s self one wants to reveal.\u00a0\u00a0Each blogger should set their own parameters. “How much of you do you want to be?” she asked\u00a0the bloggers.\u00a0\u00a0 She argued for honesty in blogging, and for not following the\u00a0magazine route of “selling out”, in only writing good restaurant reviews.\u00a0 She said that Food24 <\/strong>would be following a policy of saying it as it is in their restaurant reviews.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Brad Ball, chef of Bistro 1682, in discussion of restaurant reviews, said that they welcome the feedback from reviews, and act upon it.\u00a0 He does take the feedback “from whence it comes”, he said.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Restaurant owners and chefs were advised to not respond when they have had something to drink!\u00a0\u00a0 Restaurants should contact the clients posting negative reviews, and sort the issue out as quickly as possible.<\/p>\n

Sam warned bloggers to not set themselves up as an expert, as one can easily be ridiculed by others.\u00a0\u00a0 She advised them to be humble and honest in their writing.\u00a0\u00a0She reminded bloggers to not take their blogging too seriously, and not be too earnest, but rather enjoy it and to\u00a0blog for fun.\u00a0\u00a0 Each individual blogger’s writing will not change the world, and “does not matter in the bigger scheme of things”.\u00a0\u00a0 Sam advised that Google Analytics be used to measure the blog’s readership.\u00a0\u00a0 Food24<\/strong> has a special page on its website to provide a platform for 440 food bloggers, with 50000 readers and 200000 page impressions per month.\u00a0 She advised new food bloggers to join the Blog platform that had been set up for them on the Food24<\/strong> website, and then to start up their own independent blogs once they have gained in confidence.\u00a0 Photographs should be captioned and tagged, to help with Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), and should be well-shot in good light.\u00a0 Headlines should have “Googable” words in them, for SEO.\u00a0\u00a0 The most popular recipes posted on the Food24<\/strong> Blogs platform are for fundamental meals such as chicken pie, macaroni cheese, bobotie, and anything with chocolate in it.\u00a0\u00a0 A recent post of a “Braai pie” recipe attracted 10 000 hits for a first-time blogger.\u00a0 Sam concluded that she no longer sees herself as a journalist, but as a “conversation shepherd”.<\/p>\n

Rob Armstrong impressed the bloggers by being himself and honest (as was Sam), and is incredibly tall.\u00a0\u00a0Haut Espoir was bought by his family in Franschhoek\u00a0ten years ago, and\u00a0Rob took the bloggers through an informal tasting of\u00a0his Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Shiraz Rose (he says they cannot make enough of it), Gentle Giant (named after Rob’s brother)\u00a0and Shiraz. \u00a0Half of Haut Espoir is planted with vines, and the other half with fynbos, over 7 000 fynbos cuttings, representing 600 – 700 species,\u00a0having been planted.\u00a0 The goal is to follow organic\u00a0and biodynamic farming practices, and\u00a0 Haut Espoir supports the Biodiversity and Wine Initiative.\u00a0\u00a0 The winemaker is Nikey van Zyl, and Rob says that he is in charge of sales and quality control, in testing the wines.\u00a0 He has a personal relationship with his clients (including &Union and Caveau), and personally delivers his\u00a0wines to them, so maintaining the good relationship.\u00a0 Rob writes a “Fynbos Friday” post about the wonderful plants they have on their farm.\u00a0 One can do a Fynbos and Vine Tour with Rob, by making an appointment.\u00a0\u00a0 In contrast to Sam, Rob does not know his website readership, and does not really care what it is.\u00a0 He does however know that they produce 80 000 bottles of wine per year.<\/p>\n

It was interesting to hear the Canadian statistic that the average time between buying and drinking a bottle of wine is\u00a017 minutes, meaning that wine drinkers are not ageing their wines any more.\u00a0\u00a0 In South Africa the statistic is 72 minutes.\u00a0 Rob shared that the number of Vignerons of Franschhoek has more than doubled since 2004, and now stands at 54.\u00a0 Discussions are in place to stretch the new Franschhoek Wine of Origin region, to include such wine estates as Backsberg and Glen Carlou.\u00a0\u00a0 Rob is the Chairman of the Vignerons’ Sustainability Committee, a joint action by the vignerons to self-audit their sustainability.\u00a0 Wine buyers can check the sustainablity of the wines they buy and drink via the new sustainability seals.\u00a0 Rob is on Twitter, as @Rambowine, while the farm’s Twittering (@HautEspoir)\u00a0is done by Raoul de Jongh.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Rob was asked whether wine sales had increased due to his blogging and Twitter activity, and he said that he could not quantify that, but that it was easier to sell his wines due to the awareness that had been created for Haut Espoir.<\/p>\n

The next Food & Wine Bloggers’ Club meeting\u00a0will be held\u00a0on Wednesday 22 September,\u00a0at the Salt Vodka and Champagne Bar, above Salt Deli and across the road from the Ambassador Hotel in Bantry Bay.\u00a0 Food blogger Dax Villanueva from Relax-with-Dax and wine blogger Hein Koegelenberg from La Motte will be the speakers.\u00a0\u00a0 To make a booking to attend, e-mail info@whalecottage.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Food & Wine Bloggers’ Club meeting held at Brio restaurant\u00a0last night was a huge success, with five Haut Espoir wines tasted, and Rob Armstrong of the wine estate and Sam Wilson of Food24 informing and entertaining the food and wine bloggers attending.\u00a0\u00a0 There were lots of laughs, and bloggers attending participated in the discussion. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false},"categories":[4795,3,124,20,21,19],"tags":[6769,6766,6776,6765,6783,6782,5705,115,6785,3160,1239,6771,3073,3638,2285,6768,3982,6753,32366,6762,2376,421,2881,6001,475,32378,4574,6788,4509,3144,6400,4571,6752,4796,6754,4328,32369,6779,1007,6787,6770,2645,6759,4678,4508,3816,6756,1540,6767,6757,6773,3817,6761,6401,1861,6775,6784,6760,1859,3143,6758,4907,1469,1061,6774,3062,6786,3947,422,3813,6781,6764,145,2757,6780,6763,1587,6778,6777,32373,6772,5316,6755],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t