Sustainable Screwcaps

Perhaps the biggest shock of the local launch of Graham Beck’s Game Reserve range of nine wines on Thursday was just how many are closed with screw caps. That after garrulous game ranger Mossie Basson (below) had made the sustainable point that mankind is in deep trouble unless the species pulls up its sustainable boots. “If it took 100 years to wipe out 61% of the Cape Floral Kingdom, where will we be in another 100 years.” Perhaps next week’s Amorim media tour to Portugal for the Cape’s most visible wine writers Cathy Marston, Edo Heyns, Samarie Smith and Norman McFarlane will see Amorim’s sustainable cork arguments appear in the local press. Even as readership numbers of dead-tree media continues their depressing slide.

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But then as Etienne Heyns (any relation of Edo?, ed.) noted “our market is on-trade and wine-by-the-glass in particular, which calls for screw caps instead of corks.” A fact of life for sustainability supporters – let nothing stand in the way of economy and convenience.

Tÿlèr Brûlé jokes in the Weekend FT this morning. “Would I like to go on a tour of South African lodges for two weeks and learn how to make local crafts?” asks Tommy, reading from a sheet of paper that looks like it’s been made from pressed oryx dung. “Ummmmmm, not in this decade,” I respond. “See if we can defer.”