Only one month to go until the 2016 Juliet Cullinan Standard Bank Wine Festival!
The gist of it: Juliet Cullinan has once again handpicked a vitrine of South Africa's most celebrated producers to showcase their best vintages at the most exclusive, longest running wine event throughout South Africa. Small and select, the festival is known for presenting vintages of
distinction and quality in an elegant setting. Ms Cullinan created this unique marketing platform to acknowledge and celebrate the skills of talented individual winemakers. It's the second year that the SAWTC will use this exclusive wine platform to allow wine lovers to test their tasting ability. Visitors to the festival can taste and identify 30 wines in unlabelled decanters at the SAWTC stand. The SAWTC is not only a great occasion to test your palate with your friends; it also gives you an opportunity to be selected for the South African team that will be flying to Provence for the World Championships in October 2016.
The 2016 Juliet Cullinan Standard Bank Wine Festival takes place at Summer Place in Hyde Park and is open to the public on Tuesday 12 and Wednesday 13 July 2016 from 17.00–21.00. Tickets are available from Webtickets.
As if we didn’t have enough to consider while we’re sweating bullets over a decision in the ever-imposing wine aisle at the local grocer, it seems that red and white are going to be the very least of our varietal problems in future, mainly because blue and orange wine is now totally a thing.
The gist of it: The blue wine trend comes to us from Europe, where six young entrepreneurs have collaborated with the University of the Basque Country and the food research department of the Basque Government to make a beverage called Gik. The wine is prepared using a blend of white and red wine grapes, which is then sweetened with a non-calorie sweetener (yes, I know, but keep reading). It turns out the vivid hue of the wine is not artificial! It is created using a natural pigment found in grape skin, which is combined with indigo from the Isatis tinctoria plant. According to its creators, Gik is intended to appeal to millennial buyers and the blue colour is supposed to represent 'movement, innovation, infinity and change.' Read more here.
The gist of it: The orange wine trend, on the other hand, was not dreamt up overnight - it has actual roots in antiquity. Made using a technique favoured by the Romans, which involves leaving grape skins in juice for a few days or weeks rather than removing them immediately, the resultant orange wine is said to have a richer, more complex flavour than regular white wine as it is fermented naturally in clay pots. The technique dates back to 8,000BC and was the main way of making wine up until the mid-twentieth century when modern production methods took over. Read more here.
The gist of it: Food scientists are reporting that the microbial mix found in grape juice during the winemaking process may help shape the bouquet of a finished wine. Their research suggests that the microorganisms found in must can be used as biomarkers to predict which metabolites will be found in the finished wine. Metabolites are chemical compounds that help shape the flavour and texture of a wine, so in future winemakers might use microbial analyses to improve their products by identifying bacteria and fungi associated with desirable metabolites. Read more here.
This week’s Weekly Wine Wrap-Up was brought to you by Juliet Cullinan Wines. The 26th annual Juliet Cullinan Standard Bank Wine Festival will be hosted on 12 and 13 July 2016 at Summer Place, Hyde Park. Tickets are available at Webtickets.
Webtickets / Website / Email / Twitter / Facebook / Instagram
