September Newsletter

Thank you for letting us in, here is this month's newsletter!

Wine Tasting Journals

Season is just around the corner, so take advantage of a five percent discount offer on our wine tasting journals. This elegantly designed pocket journal is ideal for your Christmas corporate gifting, adding value to your tasting room or wine event. For a detailed quotation email us here ...

News

100 Women - 100 Wines

What do thirty wine women get up to on Woman’s day? Why we drink wine of course! A group of us were invited to a pre selection-judging day for Clare McKeon of spill.co.za - 100 women – 100 wines competition. Read about all the fun we had here ...

Best of Wine Tourism Awards - South Africa

The invitation from The Great Wine Capitals Global Network to participate in the Great Wine Capitals Best of Wine Tourism Tour came as a welcome surprise in my inbox. This was our trip ...

Wine Swirl

Warwick ‘The First Lady’ 2009

We are in that in-between stage of seasons where if you are a red wine drinker, some reds are just too heavy and you don't feel like sipping on white wine just yet. This is the perfect easy drinking wine made from Cabernet Sauvignon which has all the those delicious berry fruit flavours and the colour to match from Warwick Wine.

Style Pairing

Warm Beetroot, Pomegranate and Feta Salad

We found this fabulous recipe prepared by Sophie Grigson from Market Kitchen, daughter of legendary food writer Jane, Sophie Grigson has become a best-selling cookery writer and household name in her own right. We felt that that this recipe is best paired with the Warwick “The First Lady’ wine because of the simplicity of the dish and the full recipe can be found on here ...

Reviews

You are welcome to forward your new vintage release(s) wine specification sheet and tasting notes for review or send us a sample to taste, and we’ll get the message out there through our blog page Swirl!, our website and social networks! Many thanks to all our new and current subscribers! Remember to ‘like’ our page, located on our site on the bottom navigation bar.

Heaps of Swirls!

Nikki Dumas

© winestyle.biz 2011

100 Women - 100 Wines

What do thirty wine women get up to on Woman’s day? 

Why we drink wine of course!

A group of us were invited to a pre selection-judging day for Clare McKeon of spill.co.za  - 100 women – 100 wines competition.

What a fantastic opportunity to discover some interesting wines. The format for the day was six groups of five women tasting five flights of five wines per flight. We were required to score each individual wine and de-select a wine that was not suitable for presentation for the competition.

As there were so many trained palates in one room, the challenge was to taste from an untrained point of view.  In the end we did well, considering all the wines tasted blind.

These are my personal favourites of the day:-

AA Badenhorst ‘Secateurs’ Chenin Blanc


Flat Roof Manor Merlot

Villiera Brut Tradition N/V

Warwick ‘The First Lady’

Moreson ‘Miss Molly’ Cabernet/ Merlot

Some of the following twitter users were present so follow them  @NikkiDumas (that’s me), @mackspill, @teamlamouette, @skyegrove, @blackdelilah, @foodandthefab, @sampugh1, @twy1, @wine_a_little, @spitorswallow …

There were some wines in the flight that was just not great in my opinion, will not be listed here, because wine is only as good as the taster is on the day!

Overall, I have to commend Clare on the organising of this gathering and of the competition. The winners of the competition will be judging the wines on the August 27, 2011.

Posted:  winestyle.biz

2010 - The Year in Swirls!

Wow, what a year it has been!

Winestyle.biz has grown so well in the last year in terms of our customer base, subscription base and of course our social networking base. Therefore, we thank you for all your support throughout the year!

Restaurant wine training remains high on our agenda for 2011, and we urge all restaurateurs to take advantage of the services that we offer. A memorable dining experience is the key in retaining your guests.

We are especially proud to have received local and international recognition for the design and compilation of wine lists during 2010 and look forward to designing yours in the next year.

Our Wine Tasting Journal was a huge success this year with increased sales and re-orders from our most loyal customers. Do take some time to view our advertising video clip here.

As far as wine festivals go, the highlight of the year was most definitely The Swartland Revolution. It was by far the most well-organized event of the year! Great reviews received from the general public, wine writers, wine masters and wine novices. The 2011 event will take place around November.

Even though we have seen an increase in the number of wine producers in the South African wine industry during the past year, we are delighted that some of them have finally cracked the overseas market without losing sight of their home based customers. (Unlike some national distribution companies) The one winery that stands out the most is Warwick Wine Estate; they have been extremely consistent throughout this year in terms of their consistency of their wines. There has also been regular upgrades to the guest facilities at the winery during this year, making Warwick Wine Estate a top destination when travelling through the Cape wine lands.

This year’s wine selections for tasting produced some incredible offerings, with some great red and white wines. However, MCC (Mèthode Cap Classique) bubbly releases were outstanding and it is wonderful to see and taste some new sparklings.

On that note, we would like to wish all our customers, guests, subscribers, followers and friends all the very best for the festive season!

Heaps of swirls!