Nelson vineyard, located in Paarl is North of Stellenbosch and Franschhoek 30 minutes driving. The route from Stellenbosch to Paarl doesn’t change much as, you are travelling through the lush green countryside with the mountains accompanying you and sunshine bouncing off peaks, the sky is piercing blue and the Cape doctor (wind) blowing through keeping you and the vines cool and fresh. South Africa is an incredible place and in the three weeks I have been here, I feel I’ve h

L’Avenir in Stellenbosch is famous for making wonderful chenin blancs and beautiful expressive pinotage. These two grapes are famous varieties which are prominent in the South African market and L’Avenir shines a spotlight on these incredible varieties. The winemaker is the very talented Dirk Coetzee from the Garden Route in South Africa who has a cute little dog called Archie following him around the winery which hilariously jumps onto the barrels and pulls out the bungs fr

Men and women don’t always speak the same language - in life and in wine! One of my favourite wine themes to explore with clients is ‘women in wine’ - where we talk about some of the differences in the way that women and men think about, talk about, choose and consume wine. Some classic stereotypes: 1. Women like rose wines more than men 2. Men prefer red wines, especially heavier more classical styles 3. More women than men drink white wine 4. Women prefer sweeter styles of

In last week’s blog I talked a little bit about ‘wine words’ - those all-important building blocks in the language of wine. But why do wine words matter? What benefit do we receive when we expand our wine vocabulary? We humans are creatures of habit. Studies have shown that families will choose the same set of sunbeds every day during a fortnight’s holiday (and will be disgruntled if they can’t use those same beds because someone else got their first!). It’s the same in the w

Corporate virtual wine tastings are such a new and exciting topic that I wanted to use this blog to tell you all about what they are, how they work and why you might like to consider doing a corporate virtual wine tasting for your clients or your colleagues. Given its international nature, the world of wine has long been used to communicating over the various video platforms like Zoom, Google Meets or Teams. But it’s only since the pandemic happened that the virtual wine worl