While Cape Town bloggers high-fived and tweeted themselves into a frenzy at today’s Great Wine Capitals blow-out lunch at La Motte to celebrate that estate’s impeccable wine tourism offering, a six pack of the top food, wine and tourist journalists from Buenos Aires flown to Cape Town by South African Airways yesterday, were today dodging baboons at Cape Point.

Argentinean food, wine and tourism journo's not invited to Great Wine Capitals blow-out

As the hotel chain PR lady explained when asked if her charges were Franschhoek bound “if you are aware of any special dates in terms of SA wines please do keep me in the loop – would be great to expose the international journos to this kind of thing.” Since Mendoza is a paid-up member of the Great Wine Capitals of the World, this is clearly a case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is up to. The excluded journo’s will no doubt be wondering why they were snubbed.

It would be hysterically funny, if it wasn’t so sad. An opportunity for top flight international coverage of the best of SA’s wine tourism offering for the price of a lunch, missed, because of a lack of communication. Producers should ask the obvious question – are the people currently managing SA wine tourism effort really the ones to spend millions on Vindaba next year?