Rustenberg Manor House

The local launches of Google Maps and Street View reflect Google’s investment in South Africa, as well as our commitment to making the Internet more useful and relevant to South Africans.  Street View also shows South Africa’s heritage to the world, ranging from the iconic winelands to the Kruger National Park.

A world first is that Cape winelands images are featured on Street View. Right now it is possible to visit via Street View:  Bouchard Finlayson,  De Rust Estate, De Wetshof, Fairview,  Jordan Wines, Klein Constantia, Meerlust, Morgenster,  Rustenberg,  Vilafonte Vineyards and Warwick Wine Estate.

South African wine connoisseur, Juliet Cullinan, commenting on Street View and the growing importance of digital technology within South Africa’s wine industry, says:

Wine-lovers all over the world can now visit the estates of some of our leading wine domains using Street View, plan their own wine routes and buy online.  As the world’s first vineyards to be placed on Street View, South African wineries will receive great exposure and can take advantage of this new technology in innovative ways, whilst expanding tourism and their global and local customer base.

The scope for improving the online presence of wineries is huge as Richard Cheary of Afrozaar explained:

There are so many ways wine farms can utilise geo products, including the creation of virtual wine route tours, incorporating video and interviews; mobile applications, comprising travel directions and preloaded tourist information; and online bookings with specific requests.

Soon to be added to Street View are  Ataraxia Wines,  Boekenhoutskloof Winery, Constantia Glen, Glen Carlou, Groote Post, Hamilton Russell, Iona Wines, Journey’s End, Kaapzicht, Le Riche, Mont Du Toit, Mooiplaas,  Ormonde Vineyard, Raka, Rickety Bridge, Robertson Winery, Saronsberg,  Strandveld, Thelema Mountain Vineyards, Vergelegen, Villiera and Weltevrede.

Using Google Street View
In areas where Street View is available, you can see the images on Google Maps (on a PC or Internet-enabled mobile) by zooming into the lowest level, or by dragging the orange “Pegman” icon on the left-hand side of the map onto a blue highlighted street.

Google has gone to lengths to safeguard privacy while allowing all South African users to benefit from this feature. Street View only contains imagery that is already visible from public roads and features technology that blurs both faces and licence plates.  In addition, any user can easily flag images for removal that he or she considers inappropriate by clicking on “Report a problem”.  South Africa is the first country in Africa to get Street View imagery in Maps.  Street View first launched in 2007 and is currently available in 23 countries and 100 metropolitan areas worldwide, including large areas of the US, Australia, Japan, France, Italy and Spain.

To learn more about Street View, visit www.google.co.za/streetview

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Vergelegen Merlot 2006

This is a lush, full-bodied wine with a little bit of spice on the palate and lots of ripe, red fruit flavours. It is smooth as silk and satisfying in every way. We are happy to drink it on it’s own but love to pair it with a rich meat stew like cottage pie. This is very much a comfort drink.

At R135.91 ($19) per bottle it is more an occasional wine rather than a daily tipple.

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The last time that such a poll was undertaken was in 2006. Reviewing the results Tim points out several aspects such as the fact that the top five wineries were in a league of their own; that ten of the Top 20 wineries were not even mentioned in the 2001 poll and that four wineries are complete newcomers to the poll.

From a perspective of production areas the winning wineries represent only one of the five South African wine regions, Coastal Region, and within that only the wine districts of Cape Point, Stellenbosch, Paarl and Swartland. The Overberg and Walker Bay districts where Paul Cluver, Hamilton-Russell Vineyards and Bouchard Finlayson are found do not fall into a particular region.

Parameters were set for the judging so that each winery had to have had at least three vintages of marketed wines.

In order of votes received the wineries are:

Boekenhoutskloof

Kanonkop and Sadie Family Wines which tied.

Cape Point Vineyards

Vergelegen

Hamilton-Russell Vineyards

Paul Cluver

Rustenberg

De Trafford, Meerlust and Thelema which tied

Bouchard Finlayson

Jordan and Tokara which tied.

Hartenberg

Le Riche, Neil Ellis and Steenberg which all tied.

Chamonix and Morgenster which tied.

On the voting panel were wine writers Tim Atkin, Michael Fridjhon, Joanne Gibson, Edo Heyns, Tim James, Angela Lloyd, Melvyn Minnaar, Fiona McDonald, Christine Rudman, Cathy van Zyl, Philip van Zyl.

Retailers: Carrie Adams, Carolyn Barton, Ingrid Motteux, Roland Peens, James Pietersen, Caroline Rillema

Sommeliers and others who took part were Miguel Chan, Neil Grant, Higgo Jacobs, Cathy Marston, Andre Morgenthal, Joerg Pfuetzner, Kent Scheermeyer and Jonathan Steyn.

For the complete article visit www.grape.co.za

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According to Decanter.com, Vergelegen, voted Best South African Winery for 5 years running by Wine magazine readers, has suffered at least 1 million pounds of damage from bush fires which ravaged the estate’s property in February and March, destroying 11ha of its 150 ha of vines. These included a parcel of virus-free quality clones developed to improve vine material in South Africa.

Winemaker, Andre van Rensburg, called the loss of this vine improvement scheme a “borderline disaster. We have been selected to develop virus-free vines to supply cuttings to the industry and this will set the programme back at least six years. Clones of that quality are not readily available in South Africa.” Van Rensburg also discarded one-quarter of the 2009 red crop as a precaution against smoke taint. Volumes will be reduced by as much as 4,000 cases.

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