Wine aficionados to meet in CT

As the global credit crunch
continues to pummel consumers
from Budapest to Boston,
certain lifestyle pleasures clearly
remain non-negotiable – wine
for one - as Western Cape forces
gird their loins to substantially
improve the annual R6.75
billion turnover generated by
wine tourism.
A super-wine indaba gets
under way on November 9.
Cape Town’s dynamic mayor,
Helen Zille (recently voted
World’s Best Mayor), and the
Cape Winelands Municipality
mayor, Clarence Johnson, will
host the so-called Great Wine
Capitals Global Network.
Some of the planet’s leading
aficionados from as far as
afield as Bilbao-Rioja (Spain),
Bordeaux (France), Florence
(Italy), Mainz (Germany),
Mendoza (Argentina), Porto
(Portugal), and the US’s Napa
Valley, will apply their fine
minds to a variety of issues.
All important is furthering
international wine tourism,
greater economic, academic
and cultural links among the
wine-producing countries and
certainly fostering greater
appreciation of wine.
Wine of South Africa’s Andre
Morgenthal, who serves on the
committee of the local chapter
of the network, says it was
unanimously agreed in 2007 to
hold the event in the Mother
City this year, the second
time it has been accorded this
distinction.