Vintage 2000, Ten Years Later

March 11, 2010

The world has changed a lot since the charismatic André Simon founded the International Wine & Food Society in 1933. Almost everything that we take for granted, as far as gastronomy is concerned, didn’t exist. There weren’t celebrity chefs, households generally existed on the basis of one comprehensive cookbook, and the range of produce available [...]

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My favourite kitchen tool

March 8, 2010

Some men have tool sheds; I have a kitchen. Ok, so it isn’t my kitchen only, and it isn’t a “man room” in the sense that I can lock myself away from the world, but it’s a fantastic place to play with food. Often this is done with other members of the family, which is [...]

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Mulligans: the born again golf shots

March 6, 2010

Most golfers will jump at any excuse to get out on the course. Charity days, for example, are quite useful – one is supporting a good cause, after all. Topping the hierarchy, though, is the corporate or sponsored day. This one, dear readers, is the crème de la crème of golf invitations. Firstly, they qualify [...]

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The Lynchpin of a Wine Bargain

February 25, 2010

There are few marketing exercises that have given me as much pleasure as launching Cloof’s Bordeaux-style blend Lynchpin to the British media … at a chateau in Bordeaux! Not only was the wine offered en primeur (a la Bordeaux), but I also put together a mini-conference entitled “Is the New World killing Bordeax” AND I [...]

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Fun with Sex Surveys

February 18, 2010

Sex is a rather useful activity. Apart from the role it plays in procreation, it’s also popular as a recreational pastime. And, the technologies behind both online videos and ecommerce were largely developed by/for the porn industry.
Imagine that; without smut we may still be waiting for YouTube, which means that Susan Boyle would never have [...]

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Building professional websites really easily

February 15, 2010

I was very excited last week to discover an amazing tool for building websites. What makes it amazing – with a capital A – is that it’s pretty much WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get).
As far as websites are concerned, WordPress has been the object of my affections. The 1000s of templates (themes, [...]

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The McCure for Big Macs

February 11, 2010

Travel is exhausting at the best of times. Add to that the inevitable late nights (and drinking!) with customers, which are a necessary feature of wine industry sales trips, and you have the makings of Jack being a very tired boy.
I had one such experience during my trip to Mumbai in November last year. The [...]

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Hiking the Garden Route beaches

February 5, 2010

I have fond memories of time spent along various parts of the Garden Route. Two of these – cycling the red route in Harkerville forest and golf at Pezula – are almost in the realm of spiritual experiences. To these I can add the Coastal Trail, led by Mark Dixon of Garden Route Trail, which [...]

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Vegetarian dish takes centre-stage at Vaudeville

February 3, 2010

I sometimes think that vegetarians get a rough deal. Unless you’re somewhere like India, it can be difficult to find interesting/thoughtful/tasty vegetarian food. Let’s face it, the world is set up around the preferences of people that regard a meal as falling a long way short if it doesn’t have at least 200 grams of [...]

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A New Kind of Middleman

January 20, 2010

As a kid growing up in a farming community I often heard talk of “middlemen”; usually in scornful reference to the perception that they inflate prices at the expense of the farmer.
The first rule of The Market is that the entity closest to the consumer gets the biggest chunk of the margin. Hence retailers [...]

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