Scheldon follows his conviction

Sky News, BBC, CNN are the opposite of Prozac. If it’s not Isis causing medieval mayhem, its Israel flattening Gaza. Riots in Missouri, corruption all over. When you’re told a joke about a teenager being tossed off a Cliff, the depravity of daily life plumbs new depths. Of course bad news sells newspapers and Gigabytes, but sometimes, good guys do win. Which I guess is what RECM are doing with their Follow Your Conviction competition. With R10K up for grabs every month for telling your story on-line, it’s an attempt to inject some good news into the daily grind.

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I’m not eligible since RECM sponsor our weekly Best Value Tastings or I’d tell the story of Scheldon Gertsner selling hot chocolate for change on New Church Street one winter morning. The change Scheldon has in mind on his poster (above) is to give the forgotten generation of Cape Town’s squatter camps an alternative to flinging poo. He runs an outreach program for young kids in Khayelitsha and his night time job is waiting at Societi Bistro on Orange Street.

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So when I was looking for someone to serve our RECM Best Value wines at the opening of the latest exhibition, No Fixed Abode, at the New Church Gallery earlier this month, I thought of Scheldon and gave him the gig and the money. The compliments on the wines and service are still coming in and at the opening, reference was made to Scheldon and his “wine installation.” Confirming my own conviction that fine wine is fine art, perhaps with less vowels on the label than feature in the name of artist Malala Andrialavidrazana.

R10K will buy a French oak barrel – or even better, half a dozen second fills. So surely there is a winemaker of conviction to type up some terroir? Darling is convinced they make the best Sauvignon Blanc in the Cape. Perhaps Chas Withington can articulate it. Like his dad, a pilot in the RAF during WWI, who noted nonchalantly in his log book “shot down over the Channel. Save by the Folkstone lifeboat.” Now that’s conviction.

Some even think there is merit in SA brandy. And certainly it’s a spirit to help the electrons flow and communicate a personal principle.