While ANC ministers fly off for fondu and ski in Davos at the World Economic Forum, the political echelons of the SA wine industry meet at the Nedbank Vinpro open day at the Lord Charles Hotel in Somerset West on Thursday for an equally important task: to decide who will fill the velskoene of retiring WOSA chairman Johann Krige who has had enough of a thankless task of herding the hundreds of SA wine producers seeking a place in the export sun. Contradictory messages are flying, like the one on the Vinpro website that proclaims “imited space available – NEDBANK VINPRO INFORMATION DAY (FULLY BOOKED).”

Which saves me R700. Funny sponsorship this from Nedbank when punters are asked to pay R700 for some promotional messages from Old Mutual and Cape Town Tourism. In the old days, they’d offer you a chance to win a time share to attend such events.

The hot favourite to assume the La-Z-Boy recliner in Dorp Street is Don Tooth (above), whose erstwhile boss Michael Spicer, was a regular fixture at Davos until American Cynthia Carroll arrived on the scene. Cynthia may have taken Anglo American to the brink but Vergelegen flourished under her reign and is still owned by the struggling mining giant that is shedding assets faster than a Schaapenberg vineyard loses berries in a South Easter. Which speaks volumes to Don’s political nous which he’ll need in the treacherous shallows of SA wine politics.