Author Archive
Cape Vineyards Battered by Storm
For those of you living in the fairest Cape, and I mean Cape Town of course, you would have certainly experienced one of the Cape’s wildest storms in 30 years. The devastating storm struck on Tuesday 11th November and raged on until it finally subsided on Thursday.
Gale force winds bruised and battered the Mother City, [...]
Wine Headaches: The Truth
First, let’s clear something up. The hangover you get after over-indulging in your favourite bottle of plonk is NOT a Red Wine Headache (RWH). It’s a hangover. RWH can be considered a syndrome and affects many unlucky wine-drinking individuals in varying degrees. There are currently only theories as to what causes these untimely headaches and [...]
Cellar Software
I’ll say it over and over again that the convergence of IT and the wine industry will change the way we interact with wine. But I suppose you already know that? Sure, there are aspects of IT that may take the ‘romance’ out of wine, but there are also very practical tools that one can [...]
White is the New Red
When it comes to white wines I tend to be quite fickle, so only award winning wines will do. Unfortunately, my expensive taste comes with a high price… literally. But you’d be pleased to know that this is not always the case, and one can find high quality white wines at agreeable prices.
A few years [...]
Introductory Wine Course
The Cape Wine Academy offers you the opportunity to learn more about South African wine with a course entitled ‘Introduction to South African Wine’ to be held in Durbanville, South Africa.
The course will run over four weeks covering topics such as The History of Wine in South Africa, Viticulture and Winemaking. An application fee of [...]
SA Wine Exports on the Up
The bad news might raise eye-brows, but I find it always pleasing to report the good news. Today is no exception. Despite the international economic slowdown, South Africa’s wine export sales have exceeded all expectations. Wines of South Africa (WOSA) have reported that over 363 million litres have been sold abroad during 1 year ending [...]
Bottle Shock
I wish that movies with ‘wine’ as their central theme were made more often. It has been 4 years since the release of that classic ‘Sideways’, and now finally in 2008 we once again have reason to swirl our wine in delight.
The movie is called Bottle Shock and tells the true story of how Napa, [...]
Organic Wine: What’s the Big Deal?
What makes organic wine so special? Is it really that special? But wait a second… what IS organic wine? One hears vegetables described as ‘organic’ as if it were Mother Nature herself who conjured up the over-priced carrot in your shopping basket. So what about organic wine then?
‘One hears vegetables described as ‘organic’ as if it [...]
My Winning WINE Magazine Letter!
If you can recall I wrote an article entitled ‘It Must be Something in the Water’ posted on September 22nd 2008. In this article I shared my theory regarding the apparent ‘earthy’ characters present in some South African wines, as pointed out by UK wine critics.
Well, I took my theory a step further and presented [...]
Cellar Tips
Ever thought of building your own wine cellar? Or maybe you’re just curious as to how wine should be properly stored. Here are my basic cellar tips for all of the My Wine Cellar family to share…
The ideal temperature to store wine is between 13ºC-15ºC. However, variation in temperature is most critical and for this reason [...]
