The 2014 Constantia Fresh festival is happening this Saturday, and it is quite a vibe. Showcasing the best of the Constantia Wine Route, the festival is a sunshiny afternoon of good food and better wine. But the sheer variety can be quite overwhelming, so we thought we’d give you a quick heads up on the wines […]
The Valentine’s Day date is generally a pressurised affair. We don’t necessarily think that’s cool – people need to calm the hell down about the day in general. Nevertheless, life is life, and you may find yourself on a VDay date, and one thing you do NOT want to do is cock-up the wine order. So don’t. Get it figured out, here.
Ever been on a fine dining date and got a skeef eye thrown at you from across the table, because the pint of your favourite pale ale just doesn’t look classy enough in the establishment? Maybe you’re a wine fundi that sits on the out-skirts of a braai, left alone to sip on your Chardonnay, while the others crack open a beer? Problem solved.
Looking for the ideal spot to sweep that someone special off their feet this Valentine’s Day? We have just the spot for you, and luckily its right on our doorstep. At the very top of Constantia Nek a contemporary boutique wine farm lies hidden waiting to be discovered, offering exquisite views of the Constantia Valley.
Sho, but 2014 has started with one hell of a bang. I don’t know about you, but I am certainly due for a treatment. And the Beau Constance Spa is putting the treat in treatment, let me tell you that much. The Beau Constance Spa is set among a shady stand of trees on the […]
Beau Constantia – the boutique winery that you didn’t know was less than 15 minutes away from the Cape Town CBD – is where you’ll be taking the relatives when they visit this festive season. As you take that right turn towards Kirstenbosch, they’ll groan inwardly, and then BOOM! You ignore the turn off and […]
Summer is most definitely here, and with the office shutdown just over a week away, and the prospect of visiting relatives looming, you will absolutely consider visiting a wine farm in the next month. And if you don’t know about this place, you’ll probably join the herd of schmucks trekking for over an hour beyond the boerewors curtain.
Okay,okay we’re not saying that your local bottle store wont have any wine next time you stock up, we’re not saying that we need to start thinking of alternatives – we’re just saying that we haven’t really had to worry about this before, and it’s a little alarming. That’s all.
This here is a 12-litre bottle of 2009 Chateau Margaux, and it can be yours for a very cool $195,000 (R1,950,000). Yes, that makes it R25,000 a glass. So, not for the braai, then.
2oceansvibe’s has received a copy of the email Flippie’s rep, Carina Papenfus allegedly sent to SA’s wine industry in July. The email is riddled with inconsistencies and lies*.
Carina Papenfus’ name came up in our previous article about the owner of Rietvallei wines, Johnny Burger, killing himself. And now she is back, with this letter she allegedly wrote to Joost van der Westhuizen.
Sources have confirmed that the owner of a wine farm in Robertson, shot and killed himself this morning. He had recently received massive criticism via social media, for his alleged physical abuse of a farm worker.
This is the last column from me here, for the known future at least. Which, let’s be honest, is nowhere past my first cup of coffee tomorrow morning. It’s been a blast. Or, as much of a blast as a wine column can be. I have stood on a soapbox a couple times and railed against the insidiously commercial, cynically sweet, and risibly reduced-alcohol wines that plague our shelves.
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.
Elgin, it’s a beautiful place. Like a scene from a Blake poem, it’s all dew drops, unpasteurised cheese and wood fires, fresh fruit and good wine. Which makes it’s the perfect place to host a wine festival.
This is probably the best thing an uneducated wine drinker could ask for. You know that moment when your waiter asks you what wine you’d like to drink with your food, and you panic, and end up going with old faithful? Well this little infographic could save you from tragic pairings in the future.
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.
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.
I have just settled down next to the heated pool. This after a game of tennis, some brekkie and a 10 minute steam followed by a shower. Things could be worse. How other hotels can claim to be 5-stars, I don’t know.
Need a little help? Hosting a wine tasting club isn’t always the easiest thing to do, especially if you don’t have a lot of experience with the theme. Wine Tasting is becoming a little bit of thing lately, so we thought we’d equip you with the knowledge that you’ll need to pull off hosting a wine tasting club succesfully. […]
It’s a short work week. Which means that you’re highly likely to be drinking bubbles this coming Friday. So you might as well do it properly. And by properly, we mean by sabrage. What is sabrage? I’m so glad you asked: The opening of a bottle, normally of champagne, by slicing off the bottle’s neck with […]
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
We LIKE this. A new Facebook online store has been developed encouraging their US users to buy and send gifts with just a click of a button. Remembering birthdays used to be a daunting experience until these guys came along, and now they making something like purchasing wine just as easy.
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.
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.
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.