Christine Cashmore, the Ross Douglas of Cape Town

It’s a tale of two entrepreneurs. Christine Cashmore starts out in Cape Town food and wine with her Good Food and Wine Show and ends up with a  Cape Town Art Fair. Ross Douglas starts out with a Joburg Art Fair and ends up in food and wine in the shape of Sanlam’s Food|Wine|Design fair in Hyde Park. Neither impessario can do air conditioning but both are masters at pulling magical rabbits out of capacious hats. Christine’s tame billionaire is Hong Kong based Howard Bilton while Ross has Paul Harris. A tax lawyer and a bankster, the Lorenzo de Medicis de nos jours.

Unable to afford R1000 a square meter, our own Pendock Wine Gallery @ Taj did not exhibit and the wine at last night’s VIP opening was in short supply. As were plates and chopsticks for the circulating sushi. You’d think that an event owned by Fiera Milano could rustle up some bruschetta. But the art was as super as the BMW venue was bad. Switch on the aircon and the lights trip. Just like a BMW.

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Audio anarchist James Webb (above) had the best shoes and Erik Laubscher’s Red Trawler (below) sold for R975,000 within the first ten minutes. Confirming for any colour blind wine marketer that fine art is the place to hang your wine hat.

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Which could be why Spier has bought the Joburt Art Show wine list. Spier’s wine is remarkably improved of late while their marketing nous cannot be beat. Perhaps I should ask Professor Mark Coetzee (below), chief curator of the Zeitz MoCAA gallery being fashioned from a grain silo as we speak, for an overflow venue for our Wine Gallery.

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