I came home to a lovely chicken salad and a glass of Coke zero last night, completely forgot that we started our diet, no wonder I was starving during the afternoon. No steak, chips or large quantities of good wine until the weekend.
Life is good but we need to find the balance between the wicked, rude, obnoxious and expensive bathroom scale, our cloths in the cupboard and the food in the fridge. I have tried for a long time to get the balance right but think with a woman’s touch the balance might be corrected sooner than later. Warning.. to not try to attempt this alone, a caring supporting partner will make the suffering so much easier.
We watched a bit of the varsity cup (recorded of course) and the Maties had a brilliant game and a good way to lift the spirit after a long day in the cellar.
I went to Cybercellar last week for a tasting. Our field marketer Miranda wanted me to present our Bernard range wines to this dynamic online wine company. It was so much fun! Young likeminded people talking about the power of online shopping, how they get involved with creating promotion and even use twitter and Facebook to connect with the customers.
They are even taking orders via Facebook and will be branching out to the USA. In my experience one of the most difficult markets to get a decent footprint for South African wine. Well done Cybercellar!!. Attached is a picture of the staff in their Franschoek office. Check out Cybercellar’s website for more info and buying South African wine on line.
http://www.cybercellar.com/South%20Africa/
The Bernard series is our top range wine at Bellingham and named after the original maverick winemaker Bernard Podlashuk . You can read a bit more about the Bernard series at the following links.
http://www.wine.co.za/directory/news.aspx?NEWSID=14770&CLIENTID=1038
The wines I presented were as follow:
The Bernard Series Old Vine Chenin blanc
The Bernard Series Whole bunch Rousanne
The Bernard Series Handpicked Viognier
The Bernard Series Basket press Syrah
The Bernard Series Small barrel SMV.
I will try and post the tasting notes of these wines on the site. The short version is that this is the best of the best Bellingham has to offer. I have poetic and winemaker freedom to create weird wacky wonderful (how is that for a winemakers attempt at alliteration) wines. This range inspires a lot of experimentation that takes place in the Bellingham cellar and everything learned can be used in some of my other wine ranges.
We are harvesting some Chenin blanc today and promise to continue the winemaking lesson tomorrow. So much is happening that I will be able to type all day but for now I need to get into the cellar. Chat again tomorrow.
thewinemakersdiary 