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 […]
The Cape Town Festival of Beer is here, boys and girls. Click on these fliers below to glean all of the info that you need. BUT WAIT! There’s more! To win one of ten tickets to the Cape Town festival of beer, tell us how many glasses of beer the blonde woman in the Cape […]
The line to enter the Johnny Walker stand literally went around the block. Well, I say block: it was a few square metres long. But still, it had the biggest waiting line by a quite a measure. There were dozens of stalls to choose from, and yet the upper crust of Johannesburg’s upwardly mobile chose to line up for shots of Johnny Walker Blue. Didn’t they miss the point?
I think we pay too little for our wine. These thoughts have clouded my brain like a Joburg smog – discussions about money always leave a dirty taste – since I heard a few different pronouncements about wine and money. The first was at the Swartland Revolution – the constitutionally testing wine event I attended this weekend, whose schedule ran daily from august conversations about fine wine to hangovers that would bring a tear to your eye and a lump to your throat.
How do you capture wanted criminals that keep avoiding arrest? You lure them with free beer, of course. Derbyshire police managed to snag 19 wanted criminals after they managed to trick them into meeting officers by baiting them with a free crate of beer.
I remember growing up with this notion that things were always better “over the seas”. Finding myself amongst winos later in life, there is still a remnant of that idea. There’s almost a measure of disbelief when a South African wine is preferred to a French wine of similar style. It feels as though there is a lack of confidence in our own wines, one that’s only bolstered briefly when a foreign critic gives us a high score. The point – which is quickly becoming a bush around which I am beating – is that South African Sauvignon Blanc is world class.
If you’re bad at choosing both your music and your beverage, drinkify.org will help ease the burden by telling you which drinks go best with your music of choice. And if this isn’t what the internet was made for, well then I have been mislead.
I love tawny port. The flavours of sweet raisin, black tea and earth make we want to shout and dance around singing, “I’m Tawny, Tawny Tawny Tawny tonight.” I finished half a bottle last night in preparation for this column. It made me happy. But not as happy as I was the last time I drank it – and that’s the rub.
Some organisation by the name of “The Central Drug Authority”, is here to tell you how bad you are. Or, in the words of the authority’s acting chairman, Dr Ray Eberlein, “If we had a boozing world cup, South Africa wouldn’t even have to practise.” Duh, Dr Ray, we already had one. And I’m still hanging from it.
Looks like the only bottles in da club for Lil Weezy will be the ones filled with mineral water. Following his recent conviction for drug possession, the rapper isn’t allowed to consume alcohol or associate with anyone knowingly engaged in narcotics – good luck. Let’s see if he can last longer than (Camps Bay) “twenty minutes my broda”.
L’Heure bleue – the hour of blue. That’s the french description of the period when the sun has set, so named for the wonderful quality of the light. Now imagine celebrating this special time of day on a Friday evening between 17h00 and 20h00 at De Grendel estate, as the sun sets over the Atlantic […]
As the temperature warms, the days grow longer, the skirts get shorter, skinny jeans are replaced with skinny denim shorts, and all and sundry converge on Camps Bay, Llandudno and the Cliftons after work to tan, swim, and pat themselves on the back for living in such an awesome city. We know summer is here.
Let’s face it, as necessary as they are, some awareness campaigns are pretty lame. Especially when they are conceptualised by ad agencies who are out of touch with the audience they are trying to speak to. But not this quality, yet very funny New Zealand commercial. It urges blokes to be “legends” by not letting their friends drink and then drive.
It was quite fortuitous how I became hooked on wine. I wish I could say it was something dramatic: being bullied into a corner by two boisterous sommeliers and forced to taste Corton, but it was all quite simple, and it came down to difference. A friend called to say that her stationary-selling buddy could not make it back from Genadendal – or wherever he was flogging staplers – in time for a wine course. Being a spontaneous chap and always happy for a chance to imbibe in good company, I agreed to this little excursion without question.
Venerable gentleman of bars the world over, Jack Daniels Old No. 7 Sour Mash Tennessee whiskey, has had a little work done in an effort to rejuvenate the legendary brand and reinforce its status as one of the globe’s most recognised, and most popular spirits.
Boschendal has cleaned up rather nicely at this year’s Wine Makers’ Choice competition. Hot on the heels of winning the Best Vintage Cap Classique, the Grande Cuvée Brut 2007 scooped a coveted Diamond Award at the 2011 WMC. Cheers to that. The Grande Cuvée Brut 2007 is one of only three Cap Classique Sparkling […]
Yesterday the wines that scored 5 stars in Platter – South Africa’s foremost wine reference guide – were released. At this year’s launch, 18 tasters worked their way through the 7 000 submitted wines. Every now and then they came across one that astounded and delighted, a wine that made them smile and smirk, and hopefully, finish the bottle. Here’s my take on the affair.
There are some fantastic wine lists out there, please don’t get me wrong, but there is a disease of boring, careless, drek as well. Wine lists composed with the imagination of a brain bathed in tepid-water, whose purpose is more to nab bucks out your wallet than make your meal memorable. Considering restaurant wine lists in South Africa reminded me immediately of a recent South Park episode where Cartman’s mom doesn’t get him an iPad. His response:
With another Oktoberfest coming to a close in Munich on Monday, the hung-over locals deserve to start boasting about their accomplishments. 7,9 million litres of beer were consumed by festival goers, despite this year’s price per litre rising to 9 Euros (R96, 00). Beeeeer.
For all those shallow Hal’s, cheap dates and general sloppy drunks (we all know at least one), this little guy’s for you. The “stay-sober pill”, is still in development stages, but is said to allow you to drink as much as you want and still stay sober as a judge. Or prevent you from getting laid.
“The wines of Constantia became famous in Europe at the same time (mid 1700 s) as the red wines of Chateau Lafite. Makes you think.” Su Birch, the head of Wines of South Africa, tweeted this week. Lafite is a famous French first growth – the 2009’s are selling for around 14 000 bucks a bottle. Yes Su, it does make me think. It makes me think, “Where the fuck did we go wrong?”
Recently I was knocking back Meerlust’s new releases at a lunch. Drinking these rather scrumptious wines, we began to discuss some incredibly important issues. The things one discusses at a wine lunch – among other winos – are, of course of world importance. They solve world hunger, the middle-east issues, America’s debt, Malema, Greece, and hint toward what 42 actually means. To be honest, if it wasn’t for conversations such as these, the world would be in a worse place than it is. So on this blustery day in Stellenbosch, the question that arose was, “Can wine be art?” As I said, vital stuff.
I know what you’re thinking. How can such a heavenly beverage be contributing to the current debt crisis? The answer is simple: people are still drinking beer, but they’re doing it from the comfort of their credit card bought couches. Problem is, 73 percent of jobs associated with the European beer industry are in bars and restaurants. BEEEEEER.
I have been a bit airy-faery of late, mouthing off about elegance, the nature of language, bonhomie, and the like. Which, I must say, I prefer talking about at dinner where there is plenty room to bang my fists on the table. And as the banging of digital fists becomes slightly tiresome, I thought I would veer off in a more practical direction. So here are a few tips to making your wine drinking life more pleasurable.
If people keep telling you that drinking alone is a sign of alcoholism, then you either need to drink less, or find a way to make sure that there are people to drink with all the time. The geniuses behind the social network app ‘Let’s Drink Tonight’ figured the latter choice made more sense too.
Drugs are great. Don’t listen to those naysayers who offer hugs instead. Silly. Whoever heard of a hug that produced art, ideas, conversation and discovery? Some may have led to sex, sure, but then I reckon ecstasy wins on that count. Of course, drugs kill people and ruin lives. So do guns, politicians, earthquakes, religion, airline food, ignorance, baseball-bats, well timed punches, badly timed racing drivers, and a host of animals. But none of these things gives us the sheer pleasure while hastening our demise that drugs do. Wine is my drug of choice.
A group of us cleaned a bottle of Thunder toffee vodka on Friday night and I can categorically state that I will gladly do it again. It just seems to hit the spot, and is welcomed by boys and girls alike. You can win your own bottle if you get a pic of the Thunder […]
Every now and again I’ll post a column on a certain word that wine people – myself included – use to describe wines that can be slightly troubling. I am going to try and make it a little bit clearer as to how the word is being used in reference to wine. Because as much fun as it is pairing wine with death, one must try to be of some use. Slight disclaimer: This is a column that imagines its readers enjoy thinking about wine a little. If you are happy with the “Ja, not battery acid I’ll drink it. Fuck that it’ll kill you” approach to drinking wine, this may annoy you.
There is so much drama in the SA wine industry at the moment, what with caffeine conundrums, and now a damning (albeit one-sided) report from Human Rights Watch that Western Cape fruit farmers are treating their workers like it’s the 1860s. I thought I would steer completely clear of such depressing matters and uplift the wine drinking nation with some sound advice as to what wine to open when faced with certain situations in your life.
I’d really hoped that coffee-tasting wines had been put to bed in this column. I had had my rant and the comments were made; I had purged myself from the nastiness, hoping never again to have to speak of these wines here. But it reared its vile little head recently when I read that caffeine had been found in one of the coffee styled Pinotages. I diluted my Chianti Classico with bitter tears, as I knew once again I would write something.