Nobel Prize to boost SA wine exports to China

Today’s winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, Mo Yan (below), is a man Johann Rupert can work with. Shown puffing away merrily, Mo is the author of The Republic of Wine which has all the ingredients for an SA best seller/cellar: Yu Yichi a dwarf hotelier, a lady truck driver (no truck strikes in the People’s Republic!) and Li Yidou or “one-pint Li” a PhD candidate in liquor studies at Brewers College in Liquorland. Mo is clearly a man after Johann’s heart as the Rupert family fortune was founded on cigarettes while the closest SA comes to a Republic of Wine is Franschhoek, where the Ruperts are uncrowned royalty.

The communist party is represented by Diamond Jin while a little red devil pops up. Three guesses as to which SA wine marketer this refers to. Sounds like a cross between Twin Peaks and a Chinese laundry. The timing is spot on for the pop-up dim sum bar called Legends at Food|Wine|Design in Hyde Park next month where Cape Legends will team up with bonzai boerekos shifu (master) Mynhardt Joubert to match Chinese food with wine which is exactly the theme for The Republic of Wine. 10/10 for feng shui.