The Diageo World Class South Africa competition pits South Africa’s top bartenders against one another for a shot at the prestigious title of Master Bartender! Bartenders create monthly cocktails to be judged Diageo’s team of mixologists. This episode, Chad makes us a variation on a Ciroc Milk Tart. Check out their Facebook page, to stand […]
2oceansvibe Exclusive: Amateur footage has emerged, in which a woman, bearing striking resemblance and vocal tone to Eastern Cape Premier, Noxolo Kiviet, is seen inebriated and shouting obscenities in an Eastern Cape bar. The man who filmed the video alleges that the woman in the video, who states “Black people, they like to lie” (0:27) and “You white people like to say the truth, but the truth will never take you to heaven”, (02:41) at two separate points, is indeed Eastern Cape Premier, Noxolo Kiviet. CLICK THROUGH TO VIEW THE VIDEO
Wine tastings. To state the bleeding amputated and mangled obvious, wine tastings are generally the best places to learn about wine if you don’t have an overflowing bank account, or an incredibly well stocked cellar. I can’t recommend going to tastings strongly enough if you are keen to broaden your vinous horizons. That being said, I thought I would give you a little guide of what not to do when you are there. For the most part, the parameters extend to everyday life, and can be summed up neatly as “don’t be a douche”.
There’s an old Southampton pub called The Hobbit under threat from the company that controls Lord of the Rings licensing. The company eventually agreed to sell the pub a license to keep using the name it has had for decades. Stephen Fry and Ian McKellan decided this was stupid, so they paid the fee themselves.
Click Here for YouTube version of the video. The Diageo World Class South Africa competition pits South Africa’s top bartenders against one another for a shot at the prestigious title of Master Bartender! Bartenders create monthly cocktails to be judged Diageo’s team of mixologists. This episode, William makes us a variation […]
The rough and ready salt-of-the earth winemakers of South Africa have been known to, at times, give me kak for being a soft handed, soutie poofta who spends all his time drinking, and none of it working. And despite the fact that they are not entirely incorrect with this assessment, I readily took Adi Badenhorst (possibly the saltiest and earthiest of the lot) up on an offer to stay on his farm for a few days during the harvest, and help out.
The Department of Health has released the results of a study completed earlier this year that paints a grim picture of both Cape Town and the Western Cape’s rampant use and abuse of alcohol. Long story short, the study concludes that Cape Town is South Africa’s drunkest city, and the Western Cape its booziest province. Er, yay?
As South Africans, the availability of great wine that we are exposed to tends to make us snobs in the vineyard area. Luckily for us, we have brands such as Boshendal to sip on, and while we sip we can be glad to know that the perfection is being celebrated for all its worth. Boschendal’s Grande Cuvee Brut 2007 took home the Classic Wine Trophy Award this week..a well deserved one too.
English heavy metal band Motörhead has launched a line of bottled alcoholic beverages, because that’s just what you do when you’re a band of a certain age. There’s Motörhead Vodka which, sure, heavy metal, makes sense, and they’ve also released Motörhead Shiraz. Because I guess that’s heavy metal too.
Do you wonder if you won one of the 10 X R500 Sunglass Hut Vouchers? Or one of the 5 X cases of Boschendal bubbly? Or one of the 5 X cases of De Grendel rosé? Or, better yet, maybe it was YOU who won the iPad 2, from Digicape? Winners were picked by a […]
When I first moved to Cape Town and thought about Constantia, my mind was filled with images of botoxed ladies who lunch, old money and a nest of well to-dos in a leafy green valley. I was aware of the historic importance of the valley, but details were scant. Today botoxed ladies who lunch still wonder about in my imagined view of the valley, but they are all sipping on excellent Sauvignon Blancs. Don’t miss the competition at the end of this column!
A reader sent in this clipping a week ago, and with a glint in his eye questioned whether wine “experts” are as useful as snake-oil salesmen. The man has a point. When people start advising on matters that largely concern taste, you need to be extra careful for bullshitters. Not as careful as for a bullshitting anesthesiologist I’ll admit – a blagging doctor can kill you. But be careful, because there will be more half-arsed winos than there will be doctors.
Video footage taken last year of a prison warder too drunk to even stand up at work have gone viral. This after it came to light that the warder in question, only known as Pitso, would not be disciplined for his disgraceful behaviour. See the very sloshed Pitso shuffling around on his arse after the jump.
The next time you are sitting at your favourite after work spot – sipping on something as the day ends while stress and worry take a backseat for the evening – let your gaze wonder to the other customers and observe how they sip their wines. As I am a frequent visitor to a number of bars/restaurants/pubs/wine-bars/shebeens/picnics/holes-in-the-walls/sidewalks/gutters/parks/etc I have observed how people drink my favourite tipple. And when stress and worry get out from the backseat entirely, kicked out by the third bottle, I find myself thinking about stereotypical wine drinkers based on how the wine gets from glass to belly. I present you with a few of my favourites and most observed.
Wine competitions. Born from the union of Satan and Lady Luck, I loathe them. And there a lot of them too. Just in SA there’s the Old Mutual Wine Awards, Michelangelo, Veritas, Top 100 wines, Young Wine Show, Classic Wine Awards, Diner’s Club Winemaker of the year, the various Top 10s, Nedbank Green Wine Awards, Terroir Awards, and more. There are also, of course, the plethora of international competitions. What are these providing other than extra weight to the competition owners’ wallets? Sod all if you ask me.
It is summer, and here in the Cape the long evenings nudge one in the direction of that most South African past time: the braai. Growing up, however, it was always beer around the braai and wine (white, nondescript, loaded with ice) in the kitchen. There was, of course, the exception in my French uncle for whom a glass of red wine is never far away. But beer was the norm. Beer dominates the braai. Is it some form of magnetic alliteration? Is beer that much better designed for smoke and charred meat? Do we still hold some outmoded idea that wine is for girls and beer is for boys? Or, possibly, is there some emasculation going on when a can is taken from the chief steak flipper and an elegant riedel glass subbed in?
This week I’ll be pairing some wines to three albums that have been occupying my earballs lately. It’s a tad facile. But then it has been shown that music can affect the way we taste wine. Drink, listen, be told a story.
Durban, the sweaty sticky place of my birth. Salty, thick air, slops, shorts, bananas and spice. If Capetonians are laid-back, it is because they’re stoned. In Durban people are simply mellow. It’s built in, climatic. It takes longer to walk through the weighty, humid air. As I was buffeted by this wall of jungle breath, and a filmy layer of sweat – that would remain with me for the next 10 days – formed, I wondered what wines would suit such a climate. And, more importantly, where could I get them?
I didn’t know what to expect, to be honest. I spend quite a bit of time at the Planet Bar (Thursday nights a must), which is sophisticated and cool, with a relaxed vibe. It certainly is more ‘mod’ when compared to, say, the world-famous Mount Nelson tea room – just next door. So when it came to […]
In previous columns here I have gone on ad-nauseum about us needing to be more interested in wine. But I thought, maybe I can attack this from the reverse today. If I can get someone to consider the aesthetic of a wine, then maybe it will result in more of an interest. It’s a long shot. You may be thinking that I am being a pretentious wooly-hat-wearing hipster knob-end talking about the aesthetic of wine. I may have to give you the benefit of the doubt; although the wooly hat is very comfortable. Sod it, I’ll give it a go.
It’s always nice when researchers employing a loosely scientific method produce results you were more or less expecting. Folks at the University of Portsmouth have determined that loud music makes people want to drink alcohol in greater quantities and at a much faster rate because the music makes it taste sweeter. Science!
What’s the deal with South African Chenin? It has been a variety that I have espoused with vim and vigour since I became a wine consumer of serious proportions. I thought it offered excellent value for money, and offered a range of styles – “I’ll find one for you” I have cried to unbelievers. But had I been fooled by overt sweetness? Was my praise of this variety ill-founded? Had I been hood-winked by easy drinking cheap wines? Did my wallet guide my palate?
Welcome to Avonmouth in Bristol, home to Europe’s largest alcohol warehouse. The warehouse stores 9,5 million gallons of wine. That’s enough to fill 15 Olympic-sized swimming pools. No spice.
This year, Jack Daniel’s will solve your Christmas gifting dilemmas, with a fantastic range of whiskey products available for the festive season. The Jack Daniel’s Limited Edition Collectors Single Tin offers a unique metallic silver design in dedication to Jack Daniel’s Silver Cornet Band, which was formed in 1892 – an ideal gift for the […]
Christmas: a time of drunkenness, praise, and popped shirt buttons. There’s revelry and excess, angels and shepherds, and of course, the fat man in the fur-trimmed getup with a hankering for cookies, milk, and having children on his lap. A weird and wonderful time it is. It is also the time of year that wine columnists all over the world trot out their terribly banal “Top 10 Wines for Christmas” piece. I hate those.
What is needed is for wine to start appearing in South African popular culture. (Do we have one of those?) Remember that rather kak film, Sideways? That changed how Merlot and Pinot Noir were sold in the States. Just because that snivelly little prick Miles told everyone to “Fuck Merlot”, they did, running to quaff cheap Californian Pinot Noir by the bucket load.
A couple of “Natty Light” enthusiasts approached the brewer, Natural Ice with the idea to make the mediocre frat-house beer slightly more remarkable by making it the first to be sent into space. Their spacecraft’ was a styrofoam cooler, a GPS tracking device, and an HD camera, launched into space with a weather balloon last week.
Disgraced High Court Judge, Nkola Motata, has filed papers at the Pretoria High Court demanding his job back. Given his indiscretions, however, he might be about to hit a brick wall… again.
I leave in a couple weeks for London, where I will be interviewing Daniel Craig on behalf of Ster-Kinekor for his new movie – a remake of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. These ‘junkets’ as they’re called, feature journalists from around the world who come in, one after the other, to interview the actors for […]
Friends, by now you’ll all be aware of the sterling social work that 2oceansVibe and Jack Daniels have done over the course of the 2011. Every month, we’ve liberated desk-bound Capetonians from the drudgery and depression of working on a Friday afternoon. Check out last month’s vibe. And we’re rounding out the year with a […]