There are no wine flies on barrel suppliers Cape Cooperage. By donating two French Oak Quintessence barrels to two protégés of the Cape Winemakers Guild, Sacha Claassen and Tamsyn Jeftha, the barrel importers are making the not-too-subtle point that the best wines need wood and that wood should be French.
The barrels will be used to make wines which will be auctioned at some charity events and the cash ploughed back into the Nedbank Cape Winemakers Guild Development Trust which is seeking to transform SA Wine from the cellar up.
The question for Sacha and Tamsyn is how much wine to make? If they each make five barrels and the other four vats are secondhand, then they can limbo under the 20% new wood maximum the Swartland Independent has legislated for wines carrying their funky logo.
As for me, I think big business donating whatever to up-and-coming winemakers is a trend to be encouraged and to this end, I’ll be donating some natural yeasts to the project. Ladies, open up your cellar door to receive my donation.