Here at drinksfeed.com we trawl through thousands of wine blogs every morning in search of some juicy news. Over the last couple of months we’ve visited new and old wine blogs alike and thought we’ll do a comparison between some of the pioneers of the South African wine blogosphere.
If you bounce off our site every now and then to see the wine hottie or the useless bar fact and truly do not care much for the wine specifics, it is highly likely that you have never heard of these winos before. The fact is that while we were still sucking on lollies these ooms and tannies were downing papsak at their pub. They’ve got a track-record of consumption and knowledge that can only be rivalled by Bacchus himself.
Michael Olivier
http://michaelolivier.co.za/
Michael is a trained chef, published author and broadcaster. He worked at numerous restaurants and hotels before focusing his attention on his blog and podcasts.
Angela Lloyd
https://outofthepress.wordpress.com/
Angela’s wine ventures started in 1983 (yes the eighties) when she ran The Cape Wine Centre for liquor retailer, Drop In. She’s also a taster for Platter Wine Guide (a yellowpages-for-wine-like-book), a judge on numerous panels. Her wine pedigree is almost as long as my …, well you know what. Expect to read serious wine industry stuff.
Michael Fridjhon
http://winewizard.co.za/
Michael Fridjhon is probably the Yoda of the SA wine industry. He’s intertwined in every show and publication in South Africa and beyond. You might know Michael from that wine show where we all get elegantly wasted – Winex. He is not strictly speaking a member of the ‘Grape team’, and his articles on the Grape website are reproduced from his weekly Business Day column, but we will overlook this and call him a “blogger” for now.
Tim James
http://grape.co.za
Tim’s wine writing career dates back to 1996 when he won SA Wine magazine’s inaugural ‘New wine writer of the year’ competition. The posts are quit wine industry focus, but every now and then one can expect to find something a bit more accessible to read.
Emile Joubert
http://www.winegoggle.co.za/
From the old brigade this is probably our favourite blog. A good mixture of relevant news and fun comments make this a must read.
Neil Pendock
http://neilpendock.com/
Neil Pendock is South Africa’s original Indie wine writer. Always ready to stir and shake the industry, although you will need to be deep down the rabbit hole to follow all the inside goss.
In our next instalment we will look at the new young guns emerging on the wine blogosphere.
