Top image: Harry Melck from the Institute of Cape Wine Masters
Some 360 years after wine was first made at the Cape, the low prices commanded by South African producers is finding the industry questioning its own economic sustainability. In order to survive, the industry has to unlock value by raising wine prices. Harry Melck from the Institute of Cape Wine Masters and a Chartered Accountant, writes that the matter of raising prices is easier said than done.
Top image: Neil Bruwer
Neil Bruwer has been appointed head-winemaker of Chamonix in Franschhoek. Bruwer, who worked as junior-winemaker at Chamonix from January 2016 to August 2018, returns to the farm after gaining experience in the cellars and vineyards of Stella Bella Winery in West Australia and Ponzi Vineyards in Oregon.
Top image: Ravi Nadasen, chief operating officer of Tsogo Sun.
In a celebratory year for Tsogo Sun Hotels, the company has announced the renewal of its headline sponsorship of the Michelangelo International Wine & Spirits Awards. Tsogo Sun Hotels this year celebrates its 50th anniversary as Africa’s leading hospitality group and no doubt its continued association with Africa’s leading wine and spirits competition, the Michelangelo International Wine & Spirits Awards, will ensure extra sparkle to Tsogo Sun’s year ahead.
It is the drinks competition with no shortage of spirit! Since introducing South Africa’s first Brandy trophy in 2009, followed by the competition opening for spirits entries in 2014, Michelangelo International Wine & Spirits Awards has built this section of the competition to include a complete additional spectrum of 21 spirits classes with some 80+ sub-classes. With the input of professional spirits specialists from Europe and the Americas, who wrote and refined these classes, Michelangelo now attracts the most spirits entries of any competition in Africa. But it is in the judging that the proof lies, and so the entries are judged by a spirited ensemble of local and international experts.
The just-released De Wetshof Limestone Hill, one of South Africa’s most popular unwooded Chardonnays, emphasises the reputation 2019 is attaining for being one of the best vintages for white wine in the Cape’s recent history. According to Johann de Wet, CEO of De Wetshof Estate in Robertson, the relatively wet 2018 winter put some much-needed moisture back into the soils. But it was the temperate weather conditions before and leading up to the 2019 harvest that resulted in optimum ripening of fruit in the vineyards.
Barker and Quin, South Africa’s leading producer of premium natural tonic water, has joined the Michelangelo International Wine & Spirits Awards as a headline trophy sponsor. The Paarl-based drinks company, which was founded in 2016 by oenology doctorate Hanneli van der Merwe and Chris Wium, has grown into one of South Africa’s success stories in the mixed-drinks market. A strong local customer base is complemented by markets for its range of tonic waters in 13 countries world-wide.
