A newish winery with practically no marketing budget, that’s situated in a difficult place to get to has become a magnet for visitors. The secret to their success is their use of social media.

There are few countries in which the wine tourism sector is more dynamic than South Africa, as I discovered on a recent trip to take part in the 2013 Great Wine Capitals, Best of Wine Tourism awards. Category winners such as Tokara, Waterkloof and Waterford are of genuinely world class, and La Motte, the 2013 overall champion for the second year, is one of the best destinations I have seen anywhere.

It was, however, the winners of the Innovative Wine Tourism category that particularly caught my attention.

Off the beaten track
Creation Wines is situated close to the tourist-attracting, whale-watching town of Hermanus, but it takes 90 minutes to drive there from Cape Town and the last ten minutes of the journey are along a dirt road that is apparently very challenging when it rains. Despite the difficulty of the trip, and less than five years after opening the doors of its tasting room, Creation now welcomes 27,000 visitors every year – and those visitors buy nearly a third of the annual production of 250,000 bottles.