It occurred to me this evening that the last couple of months have gone by incredibly fast. What have I been up to?
If I think back, there has been quite a lot on the go…
Dusseldorf
I received an invite – for which I was quite flattered – to participate in a seminar on Marketing Innovations at Prowein, in Dusseldorf. The seminar formed part of the Down2Earth initiative. Down2earth saw South Africa, New Zealand, Argentina, Chile and US marketing generics combine to promote New World wines jointly. This was done through a series of seminars, presentations and tastings. The speakers list was impressive, and the sessions attracted plenty of people over the course of the fair. I thought it was great that the various countries could work together on this promotion, and provide important insights to the New World as a whole.
Prowein itself was an experience – I have never seen so many producers and wine gathered at one show. It was a serious visual reminder to what makes up the competition. The competition aside, it was also a good opportunity to taste some delicious German Rieslings.
Oudtshoorn
Back this side of the equator, we headed up to Oudtshoorn, in the Karoo, for the Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees. The annual KKNK sees a range of predominately Afrikaans art and culture brought together, along with plenty of live music and the odd glass or three of wine. We have purchased the wine rights for the festival and now supply the wine to official festival events and bars.
Being at the KKNK is a very interesting venture, and one which I am excited about. The festival attracts a largely Afrikaans crowd from the Western Cape. This year, between the art and entertainment and entrance to the festival grounds, 160 000 tickets were sold over the course of the eight days that the KKNK took place. It was quite a steep learning curve for us to manage supplying wine to an event of this magnitude, but we managed well, and there are some very promising prospects going forwards. No doubt my Afrikaans is due to improve.
Backsberg
Back home, and we started preparing for Old Mutual Day, the 165th anniversary celebration for the insurance come investment house, which we were hosting on the farm. The idea for the Cape Town leg of the anniversary, centred around a picnic concert for Old Mutual policy holders. The line-up for the event was top-notch and included the likes of Johnny Clegg, Freshlyground, Goldfish, Lira and the Gang of Instrumentals. There was a lot of work put into preparing an awesome picnic/concert site, and making sure our road and parking infrastructure was up to scratch.
The event was set to be held on a Sunday, but sadly on the Thursday prior, we had to make the call to move the event on account of bad weather. Whilst we would have loved to have hosted the event on the farm, a picnic concert in the rain would not have been fun. No doubt we will live to host another one.
Okay that’s it for Part 1. Watch this space for Part 2. SB
Update – here is Part 2.
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