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From Lekker To… Really Bad – A Roundup Of Recent Freebie Wine Samples
02 May 2013 by Harry Haddon / No Comments
While I was away in the Drakensburg trying to survive for a week on only box wine, a little pile up of samples built up back at home. In this week’s column I go through them at let you know what they’re like.
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Wine PR – Where Words Go To Die
24 Apr 2013 by Harry Haddon / 2 Comments
I am sure that for every sensible word written about wine, Public Relation teams issue out 100 silly ones. Luckily conscientious writers shield the broader public from much of this hyperbolic guff, however, some of it does slip through on back labels, and boy, is it a load of tripe.
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Box Wine For A Week: A Tragedy
17 Apr 2013 by Harry Haddon / 2 Comments
Never have I drunk so much wine without hearing that singular thudding pop of a cork, a sound as comforting as a mother’s voice, or the gentle breathing of a lover as s/he sleeps against your chest. I did and it made me sad
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Oak Chips, Staves And Critters – Why I Avoid Wines With Animals On The Label
04 Apr 2013 by Harry Haddon / 2 Comments
I remember reading this in the Onion once: “The quality of wine is inversely proportional to the ferocity of the animal on the label.” Sadly for South Africa, we have many animal labels. Producers, it seems, think that they can bottle any crap and then throw on a cutesy label and all is forgiven.
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Old Wine For The Win – Why Aging Can Get You Better Results
20 Mar 2013 by Harry Haddon / 1 Comment
A few columns back I mentioned the RE:CM 10 year old wine awards, and how some of the wines I tasted during the judging (I was filming not judging) were not very good. I couldn’t mention the best ones, as the results had not yet been made public. I can now talk freely as the awards have been handed out.
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Wine Lists – That Hoary ‘Ol Chestnut
15 Mar 2013 by Harry Haddon / 2 Comments
Fear not, I will not be ranting here. I will not spend 1000 words frothing at the keyboard about the abysmal, facile, corporate, lackluster, insulting, sell-out winelists that do not deserve the bad laminating they have.
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Reimagining Pinot Noir
13 Mar 2013 by Harry Haddon / 5 Comments
I have been thinking quite a lot about Pinot Noir lately after having written an article on the grape for a local magazine. I feel that I can usefully reconstitute some of those points here in slightly stronger language.
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Are Wine Bargains A Good Thing? I Think Not
27 Feb 2013 by Harry Haddon / 11 Comments
I had a new wine experience this past weekend. I wish this meant tasting a new exotic variety, or an ancient vintage, or even just a good Pinotage. But no, it was far more banal than any one of those, it was a trip to the Wade Bales Society wine sale.
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Harvest Time Is Here – Spend A Day Falling In Love With Wine
22 Feb 2013 by Harry Haddon / No Comments
I do not lay awake at night wondering about the permutations of whether Oscar Pistorious shoots with or without prosthetics, I do not toss and turn weighing in my mind the quality of Lindiwe Mazibuko’s State of the Nation Address rebuttal, nor do I consider whether Vernan Philander can bowl better. No friends, I ask myself how can I get more people drinking wine
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The Best Value Pinot In The Country, And Musings On Old Wines
15 Feb 2013 by Harry Haddon / 4 Comments
This week’s column may come across as slightly schizophrenic. I have some thoughts on older wines and a wine recommendation. They are totally unrelated.
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Today You’ll Learn – How A Wine Judging Panel Works
08 Feb 2013 by Harry Haddon / 2 Comments
Wine judging is a strange endeavor. As weird, I imagine, as the judging at country fairs of jams, tarts, cakes, flower arrangements, and whatever other product of pastoral hobbies are put forward.
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Boycotting South African Wine – Such A Silly And Damaging Idea
31 Jan 2013 by Harry Haddon / No Comments
When inspiration in wine deserts me, I can always trust in pure anger at stupidity. Unfortunately there is never a lack of that. The stupidity currently on my mind is any talk about a boycott of South African wines as a response to the recent farm worker strikes.
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Posing As An Interviewer, Underwear-less Model Pranks Serbian Prime Minister [VIDEO]
31 Jan 2013 by Harry Haddon / 2 Comments
Working straight from Basic Instinct, a Serbian prank-TV show managed to get their Prime minister, Ivica Dačić, to be interviewed by a model wearing no underwear. You can all see where this is going.
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Facebook To Pay Millions of Users $5 Each, Or Nothing At All
30 Jan 2013 by Harry Haddon / No Comments
A huge number of American Facebook users received an email recently that they probably deleted imagining it came from a cash-strapped Nigerian Prince, but the email promising them $10 was real.
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How To Use Vine, Twitter’s New Video Sharing Service [VIDEO]
29 Jan 2013 by Harry Haddon / No Comments
It’s the hot new video app from twitter that allows you to share six second videos. Of course porn immediately got shared, followed quickly by advertisers publishing videos. But how the hell do you use it?
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Behold, The Quickest Car In The World [VIDEO]
28 Jan 2013 by Harry Haddon / No Comments
Look upon the Hennessey Venom GT, the world’s fastest production car. It managed a ridiculous 300 km/h in 13.63 seconds, all while remaining street legal. Get yours for only $1.2 million.
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First Clip Of Steve Jobs’ Biopic ‘iJOBS’ Released, Wozniak Says It’s “Totally Wrong” [VIDEO]
25 Jan 2013 by Harry Haddon / No Comments
Taking a decidedly Apple-like approach to marketing, the creators of the Steve Jobs film, ‘iJOBS’ have released a sneak preview to drum up excitement. It seems to be having the desired effect.
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Riesling, You Need To Drink More Of It
24 Jan 2013 by Harry Haddon / 8 Comments
Riesling. What a grape. I wonder how much you’ve had? Probably not enough. I know I haven’t. The wines of the Riesling grape are hard to have too much off. It is another type of wine in South Africa that is on the up, if a bit slower than Riesling lovers would like; but then all things vinous are slow.
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North Korea To Go Ahead With Nuclear Tests Aimed At “Arch-Enemy” The US
24 Jan 2013 by Harry Haddon / No Comments
Those pesky North Koreans are at it again. We don’t mean discovering unicorn lairs, or handing out kilograms of candy, no we mean nuclear testing, with rockets, aimed at the United States of America.
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The 9 Headquarters Of The World’s Intelligence Agencies
23 Jan 2013 by Harry Haddon / No Comments
What is the headquarters of an intelligence agency supposed to look like? Should they be far from the prying eyes of terrorists and evil geniuses; or should they be dominant structures proclaiming their existence to the world?
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First View Of Amanda Seyfried Playing 70′s Porn Star Linda Lovelace [VIDEO]
22 Jan 2013 by Harry Haddon / No Comments
Amanda Seyfried’s “Lovelace” debuts at the Sundance Film Festival this week. In the film she plays famed porn star Linda Lovelace, best known for 1972′s “Deep Throat”, and later as an anti-porn activist. This clip is the first of the film to be released, and shows Seyfried playing Lovelace in a photo shoot. The film follows the [...]
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Google Rethinks The Password
21 Jan 2013 by Harry Haddon / No Comments
Google is looking to change the password game. No longer will you have to remember complex password phrases, or give away incredibly stupid ones (password1, w’re looking at you), but simply tap a ring on a computer, or insert a USB drive.
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Johannesburg Is The 7th Most Polluted City In The World
17 Jan 2013 by Harry Haddon / 3 Comments
In the world’s biggest economies Johannesburg rates as the 7th most polluted air. The title of most polluted city goes not to Beijing as most would imagine, but the city ofLudhiana in India.
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The God Of Wine’s 6 Wine Commandments For 2013
17 Jan 2013 by Harry Haddon / No Comments
The God of wine – Bacchus – called me on New Year’s Day for a talking to atop the rather benign Bottellery Hills. He gave me six commandments to give to you. So listen carefully, young and old.
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