Update Time and some Friday fun
First and foremost big thanks to everyone that has been responding to the Christmas post we put up on Monday. Within a couple of hours my inbox was exploding. First prizes to be grabbed up were from twitter (had over 40 responses within 3 hours, so by far the fastest form of online word of mouth) second came all the blogs we had our first ten within around 5 hours, then came Facebook at about the same time and to be honest we still have prizes left for Podcasting and Video casting so guys and girls now’s the time to whip out your Flips or use a mic and give something new a go (All you need to do is mention Barringtons or Stormhoek).
On a totally different note I just read about possibly one of the finest events all year on one of my favourite sites, Cherryflava (see video above). In a post today they mentioned Movember. Basically this is a guys thing (unless you are of the fine rare lady’s that can grow a girl mo) were gentlemen from around the world are encouraged during the month of November to grow a moustache (Mo) and raise cash for men’s health issues like Prostate cancer and depression. Girls that lack sufficient Mo hair growth can register to help by supporting your Mo men with admiration and donations on the Movember web site, and guys you can register and grow your Mo, send in pics of you and your Mo, organise Mo party’s and donate to the cause.
Am thinking we should maybe try organise a Mo party in Cape Town, will bring the Stormhoek, suggestions welcome in comments.
Lastly thanks so much to everyone supporting this and don’t forget to mail us so we can include your fine work in the post at the end of the month, we really want to help Barringtons out and send them big love for helping sponsor this too. If you know anyone that is flush enough to buy their own little bit of heavenly vineyard pass on the word and tell them about Barringtons vines (sorry for the promo pitch but promise they are such nice chaps).
Have a great weekend and keep sexy people 
Christmas coming early
You know how we love to experiment with online stuff so here is our early Christmas pressy to you for 2008.
Recently we have teamed up for a special promo with the guys from Barringtons Vines. Basically we are one of 5 high end South African farms to be listed with them for their unique vineyard leasing for 2008-2009 (You lease a vineyard block and you get a whole lot of unique wine – wine everyone else has heard of but can’t get – and this will be delivered to your door) .
(***Read this bit below if nothing else***)
Our cunning plan is to try see how fast and how far we can reach as many people as possible on multiple media platforms so we will be using Blogging, Twitter, Video Casting, Podcasting and Facebook. Basically the first 10 people anywhere in the world from each of the above mentioned platforms that link back to this post mentioning Barringtons or Stormhoek will receive the following via courier ( so you can have it in time for Christmas):
- Your own single vineyard reserve bottle of Stormhoek, labelled with your name and numbered just for you.
- An limited edition A5 print of the vineyard (like above) taken by Alain Proust, the world’s best vineyard photographer, signed by both Alain and the winemaker.
- Courier postage to anywhere in the world.
What the heck we will also send out a further 20 signed prints for those not lucky enough to get there first.
This offer will close at the end of the month and everyone who writes about the offer gets to be featured in a special follow up post that I will do at the end of November.
P.S. You have to check out the founder of Barringtons other business, its crazy its a chewable disposable toothbrush !! so cool.
P.P.S If you would like to rather email me your fine work feel free to send them to christmas@stormhoek.co.za
Spreading Twitter Love
Today we had a great Breakfast coffee meet/catch up with wine and food guru Michael Olivier of NoshNews.
NoshNews is undergoing a bit of a redesign at the moment but it is a fab site sharing readers his views and tips on Wine food and life in general. One of the things we had a bit of a chat about was Twitter and I’m pleased to say Michael now has his own Twitter account for Noshnews. If your not already following us ( http://twitter.com/stormhoek ) or Noshnews ( http://twitter.com/noshnews ) on twitter please do so and stay tuned for the some fun things
P.S Michael also writes some great books on wine if you in the market for a stocking filler you can see them here
WordPress at Stormhoek
I write this post in the shameful knowledge that its very over due but never the less here we go.
Last month as you know we were proud to sponsor some social lube for the first WordCamp to be held in South Africa and were blessed with the presence of the founder of WordPress, Matt Mullenweg (bloody nice chap).
The day was a great event thanks to people like Tyler, Jason and Denham and the night time partying is still being fondly remembered. The following day local hero and part time model Dave Duarte and myself (full time model) took Matt (full time genius) and some of the guys to visit the Stormhoek farm and have a bit of a walk about, drink lots of wine and have a traditional South African Braai (once again cooked by an Englishman!).
When Matt is not busy changing the way people around the world engage with one another, he also likes to take pictures as you will see on his blog, and the farm trip was no exception. I have put up the above picture taken by Denham with us all trying to copy Tyler’s natural “Blue Steel” pose. To check them all out click here.
The next day we also had a tour of our favourite local coffee spot by the Cape Town coffee legend and owner himself Dave Donde. This was followed by a trip up Table mountain with the wonderful hunter of genius Max. There are many more fab pictures to be seen here.
Till next time, Big love.
Afrikaans Wine Terminology
A "wynboer" in action…(our mate Bruce Jack)
Quite a few of our wine producers in SA are Afrikaans speaking. Many of the terms used in the industry here are from derivatives of Afrikaans words. International travelers are often exposed to these on visits here, so I thought it may be appropriate to give you a quick rundown of some of the more common terms.
- Boer: Farmer. (pronunciation hint: "b-oo-r" and roll that "R")
- Wynboer: Wine farmer.
- Wyn: Wine (pronunciation hint: "vain" as in "You’re so vain…")
- Kurksmaak: Corked.
- Kurk / Prop: Cork.
- Gis: Yeast or ferment. (pronunciation hint: the G is a guttural G)
- Druiwe: Grapes. (pronunciation hint: roll the "D" a bit too. Sounds like driver with a long "a" instead of the "i")
- Akkerhout: Oak.
- Oorsprong: Origin.
- Oesjaar: Vintage. (pronunciation hint: "Oes" is like pussy without the "p" or "y")
- Papsak: Usually a plastic bag filled with "cheap" wine. Recently banned partly because of its connotation to and relation with the "dop" system which was used as compensation for vineyard workers in the past. (pronunciation hint: pup-suck)
- Dooswyn: Box wine. A "papsak" made from foil encased in a cardboard box. Almost 60% of all South African wine is made for the box wine market. Generally cheap and cheerful – some are quite good.
- Suur: Acid.
- Kelder: Cellar.
- Droog: Dry – as in "Could I please have a glass of dry white wine?" – "Kan ek asseblief ‘n glas droe witwyn kry?".
- Uitgis: Dry Ferment.
- Rooi: Red. As in red wine – rooiwyn. (pronunciation hint: "Roy")
- Wit: White. As in white wine – witwyn.
- Bosstok: Bush vine.
- Opleiwingerd: Trellised vineyard. (pronunciation hint: op-lay-ving-erd)
Further reading can be found here.
