Razvan Macici (below) was a popular choice for Diners Club Winemaker of the Year at the Conservatory in Franschhoek this evening. Diners has put the glamour back into the 32nd running of the competition, which now runs to R50K in cash and two business class return tickets to Buenos Aires.  Razvan is already going to Argentina later this month with Johan Venter, director of primary production at Distell plus a viticulturalist, so look out for more gaucho glamour in the Nederburg brand. Any one for Torrontes?

Diners doubled the number of guests and hired Pete Goffe-Wood as celebrity chef. The awards dinner was crawling with corporate bigwigs including a bunch of American bankers blown clean across the Atlantic by Hurricane Sandy. A Standard Bank board meeting was scheduled for yesterday and Diners director Reg Lascaris warmed up the bibulous banksters with a tasting at his Boekenhoutskloof operation.

Diners Young Winemaker of the Year is Anri Truter who trousers R25K and two return economy class air tickets to Italy. His winning wine was the Diesel Pinotage 2010 which blows a strong raspberry at the Wall Street Journal, the New Statesman and other Pinotage haters who have launched a withering campaign against the cultivar over the past month.