Brands, marketing and wine activism
South Africa
Joined May 2014
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Wine of the Evening retweeted
Kudo to @mikeratcliffe for blaming AGOA fiasco on SA government. Seeing as wine industry bodies are inept in their communications, it's up to producers to speak-up
AGOA decision could strain wine exports. But the picture is not all bleak news24.com/life/wine/agoa-de…
Wine of the Evening retweeted
How about inviting media to these roadshows? I truly think it would benefit the industry.
Thank you to everyone who joined us at our Stellenbosch roadshow!
It’s always valuable to hear directly from the industry -your questions and concerns help South Africa Wine better understand what is happening on the ground and where further support is needed.
#RoadShow
Wine of the Evening retweeted
True, producers - go with a plan. Wines of SA could, however, maximise the visibility of and interest in Cape wine with a plan of their own. @WOSA_ZA activation pretty dull at these big international shows.
linkedin.com/safety/go/?url=…
Flying @Virgin the wine is now served on cans. Strange to think I was entered for a @theRSAorg design bursary in 1965: the project - create the packaging for a range of canned wines. What’s taken so long?
Interesting article in the @SundayTimesZA about @KroneCapClassique and the challenges of life. I think I was last there 25 years ago in late January. Fire had just damaged some of the vines. Time to revisit. And time to celebrate life and enjoy a luxury brand that is affordable.
Wine of the Evening retweeted
Mike Ratcliffe Leaves Stellenbosch Wine Routes Hot-seat after Triumphant Tenure - Wine Goggle share.google/zCYTb5EIagGp2fX…
Wine of the Evening retweeted
It occurred to Pooh and Piglet that they hadn't heard from Eeyore for several days, so they put on their hats and coats and trotted across the Hundred Acre Wood to Eeyore's stick house. Inside the house was Eeyore.
"Hello Eeyore," said Pooh.
"Hello Pooh. Hello Piglet," said Eeyore, in a Glum Sounding Voice.
"We just thought we'd check in on you," said Piglet, "because we hadn't heard from you, and so we wanted to know if you were okay."
Eeyore was silent for a moment. "Am I okay?" he asked, eventually. "Well, I don't know, to be honest. Are any of us really okay? That's what I ask myself. All I can tell you, Pooh and Piglet, is that right now I feel really rather Sad, and Alone, and Not Much Fun To Be Around At All. Which is why I haven't bothered you. Because you wouldn't want to waste your time hanging out with someone who is Sad, and Alone, and Not Much Fun To Be Around At All, would you now."
Pooh looked at Piglet, and Piglet looked at Pooh, and they both sat down, one on either side of Eeyore in his stick house.
Eeyore looked at them in surprise. "What are you doing?"
"We're sitting here with you," said Pooh, "because we are your friends. And true friends don't care if someone is feeling Sad, or Alone, or Not Much Fun To Be Around At All. True friends are there for you anyway. And so here we are."
"Oh," said Eeyore. "Oh." And the three of them sat there in silence, and while Pooh and Piglet said nothing at all; somehow, almost imperceptibly, Eeyore started to feel a very tiny little bit better.
Because Pooh and Piglet were There.
No more; no less.
(A.A. Milne, E.H. Shepard)
This is National Suicide Prevention Week.
Wine of the Evening retweeted
A timeline of one man's cunning inheritance tax scheme.
2008: Buy a thousand acres in Oxfordshire. Tell The Times that dodging inheritance tax is the critical thing. Scheme live.
2009 to 2018: Do absolutely nothing. A villager farms it on contract. Flawless.
2019: The villager retires. Rather than hire another one, decide to farm a thousand acres yourself, having never grown anything.
Also 2019: Invite a film crew.
2020: Rain for nine weeks. Profit on a thousand acres: £144.
2021: Broadcast the £144 to the largest streaming platform on earth, thereby informing the entire planet that farmland makes nothing.
2021: Open a farm shop. Acquire a queue down a lane and the undivided attention of West Oxfordshire District Council.
2022: Restaurant refused. Enforcement notice. Six weeks to take a barn apart.
2023: Lose the appeal. Lose it again.
May 2024: Accidentally get English planning law rewritten. Lawyers name it Clarkson's Clause.
August 2024: Open a pub selling only British food. Sell your own sausage at 74p against 18p imported, and eat the difference on every plate.
October 2024: The Chancellor caps agricultural property relief at a million. Scheme dead.
November 2024: Stand on a platform in Westminster in front of thirteen thousand farmers, drawing maximum national attention to the exact tax break you were supposedly hiding behind.
July 2025: Go down with TB. First calf ever born on the farm destroyed, pregnant with twins. Gate padlocked.
23 December 2025: Government retreats. The threshold goes from one million to two and a half. Five million for a couple.
March 2026: Farm declared clear.
July 2026: Drive four hundred miles to Scotland and buy more cows.
Eighteen years.
Planning law changed. Agricultural degree applications climbing. Cited in the Commons more times than most ministers manage. Half the estates that were going to be caught by the tax are no longer caught by it.
He was accused of buying a farm to dodge inheritance tax, and then spent eighteen months getting the relief raised for everybody else's.
Worst tax dodger in British history.
Best thing to happen to British farming in fifty years.
Wine of the Evening retweeted
ANC devours itself from within as voters steadily turn their backs dailymaverick.co.za/article/…
Wine of the Evening retweeted
What does a closed embassy tell the world about South Africa?
South Africa House has stood on Trafalgar Square since 1933. Today, it is closed. Government says the closure is part of a planned upgrade, but years of neglected maintenance tell a different story.
The same pattern can be seen elsewhere. South Africa's embassy in The Hague has also been left to deteriorate, while the Auditor-General has found that several foreign properties have been mismanaged to the point of becoming uninhabitable.
Meanwhile, those responsible continue to be rewarded instead of held accountable.
Watch as Gerhard Papenfus explains why this is about much more than diplomatic buildings. It is about governance, accountability and the message South Africa sends to the world.
Wine of the Evening retweeted
Imagine selling South African Wines, one glass at a time in Chongqing alone. The benefits of its contributions to Brand South Africa, the Western Cape economy, and the Cape Winelands are immeasurable. We are talking about a megacity of over 31 million people obsessed with one culinary crown jewel: Chongqing Hot Pot. – at Randburg, South Africa
