Bye Bye Volksie Bus

The news that Volkswagen will stop producing campervans on 31 December this year is bad news indeed for wine tourism in SA. After months of trying to persuade a progressive wine brand – think KWV, Cape Legends, Anthonij Rupert – of the merits of a Dim Sum Vin Bus (below), the ground has been pulled from under my feet by the manufacturers.

dsvb

I thought given Johann Rupert’s love of classic cars, a Dim.Sum.Vin.Bus above would be a no-brainer. Imagine this one rocking up at Loftus Versveld, staffed with lovely Ladyboys, playing cool Chinese wind chime tunes full volume and serving L’Ormarins Optima 2009 paired with perlemoen potstickers.

Or the totally wonderful Mentors range from KWV with mantou and Phoenix claws (boiled chicken feet and beaks or walkie talkies as they’re known in the trade). Potent competition for traditional oompies and their worsrolle, I would have thought. But alas, SA wine and brandy marketing remains stubbornly stuck in the mud of paying celebrity chefs tens of thousands of Rands to inflate their own egos and wax their chiskops, leaving product languishing on the shelf like a broken down camper van waiting for the AA.

And exactly how will SA icon David Kramer now get to the top of the Tierkloofpas without a Volksiebus to pull him and his red braces?