Monday 12 October: This week started off with an 2 hour interview with the Chamber of Commerce. BLANKbottle was nominated for business of the year, Marketing and Branding for the second year in a row. BLANKbottle won it in 2008.
We finished off the designs for my new wine BATAVIA, signed the quotes off and booked a spot in the printing factory.
Tuesday 13 Oct: I spend the day on the road collecting components for our new highly confidential white blend. Extremely exiting!!!! I went to all my favorite places. I started the search in the vineyards. It’s essential have continuous future access to all the vineyards where the different components of the wine grows. We identified great vineyards and I got a few interesting components.
Wednesday 14th: A MASSIVE tasting with “The BOSS” and the dream team. This was the second blending session. We all learned a lot and made a few decisions. We are still far away from the final product – it usually take months… A few days later we went back to the drawing board and got even more components for the 3rd session. We arranged another tasting and got together again. This time round we narrowed the blend down to only 2 possible combinations. I cannot tell you much about this but the wine is something way different. I’ve never tasted a wine like this in my life before…
Thursday 15th: Stopped by “Cooked in Africa films” and watched episode 6 of Exploring the vine, a reality TV show. For Episode 6, the presenters featured their choice of the Renegades of the wine industry. They featured Charles Back from Fairview (a Marketing genius), Achim von Arnim from Haute Cabrière , Eben Sadie (The wine spectator labels him as the best winemaker in the Southern Hemisphere) and me. BLANKbottle features as one of the Renegades with Eben, Fairview etc. What a compliment!!!!
Friday the 16th: As usual we had our customary week-end braai. I then headed off with a borrowed tux to for the Chamber of Commerce Awards Evening, a black tie event at the Lord Charles Hotel in Somerset West. JennaVIVA Lifestyle & Home Concept and eatery took the Marketing and Branding trophy for which BLANKbottle got nominated. Check JennaVIVA out - 206 Main Road Somerset West. A worthy winner...
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Week Report - The new "Moment of Silence", new Chenin, Great White tasting and Parlotones white blend... (2009-11-23)
Monday 9 November 2009: Early morning off to Wellington. I am busy working on my new white blend: &l ... |
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Weekly Report - WINEX, a trip to Joburg... (2009-11-10)
GOODNESS this was a rough one – a weeklong trip to Joburg - the BIG SMOKE! Unfortunately I can ... |
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Week report - Nominated for Marketing and branding business of the year... (2009-11-05)
Monday 12 October: This week started off with an 2 hour interview with the Chamber of Commerce. BLAN ... |
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Weekly report - Almost got locked up... (2009-11-04)
Monday 5 Oct: I needed a Woolworths trolley for a BLANKbottle photo shoot, but almost got locked up ... |
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My new wine: You decide the price, AGAIN! (2009-10-26)
Would you like to help me decide the price of my new wine? It's called BATAVIA - The first Cape blen ... |
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Wine as a Corporate gift, my take on the subject... (2009-10-19)
I receive plenty of queries when it comes to wine as a corporate gift. And my answer is almost alway ... |
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The Hit Man is on the move: The making of 2 short films as well as the new 60 sec add. (2009-10-14)
My brother, Xaver, lives in Switzerland. Whenever he is here in South Africa my life is not my own. ... |
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HISTORY OF GIANT MISTAKE - The wine for The Parlotones (2009-10-06)
A lifelong dream to create a boutique wine, a group of talented people and a will to succeed, has en ... |
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Weekly report - The woolies launch and more... (2009-10-05)
As my brother got on the plane back to Switzerland, things slowly returned to semi-normal.
Monday 2 ... |
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Feedback from my clients (2009-10-03)
After telling my clients about the Woolies deal, I received massive feedback. See below:
WHY NOT HE ... |
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A GIANT MISTAKE, Neil Pendock, movies and more.... (2009-09-30)
I started the week off on a high note. A Sunday lunch with “The Dangerous One”, Allan Mu ... |
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Breaking news: BLANKbottle in WOOLWORTHS (2009-09-29)
“Would you like to have your wines in Woolworths?” This simple sentence rocked the world ... |
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Why do I cycle? Interview by TREAD magazine... (2009-09-22)
Many of my clients wants to know why I cycle in some of my short wine films. Recently TREAD magazine ... |
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Planning 3 new short films, blending the “Moment of Silence”, “DOWN UNDER” and DE KAT wine tasting... (2009-09-14)
After a great ADMIN day at the office on Monday we headed off to the Swartland on Tuesday. “Th ... |
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Designing labels, 4 new wines, The Dangerous One and plenty of wine tastings... (2009-09-07)
I am busy putting together a specialized vineyard and wine tour. On Monday I had a meeting with a gu ... |
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I bottled my first Cape Blend, travelled to the Swartland and visited flawless vineyards in Stellenbosch... (2009-08-31)
Monday was a long and rewarding day. After months of planning we bottled BLANKbottle BATAVIA, my fir ... |
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Blending my new wine, revealing the spaniard and moving offices.... (2009-08-23)
Monday, after months of careful planning, I finally made up my new blend. I will call it BLANKbottle ... |
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The Annual Vintners Surf Classic (2009-08-21)
I spent the week with the family at one of my “satellite offices” in L’Agulhas (So ... |
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ADMIN, the BIG blend and 5 new wines for BLANKbottle (2009-08-08)
WEEK ENDING: 8 August 2009.
Most of my week last week was taken up by ADMIN - a lot of payments had ... |
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The BIG BLEND, released The Spaniard and THE SEARCH. (2009-07-31)
This week started off with the big blend. It is a very special wine we are working on. The finer int ... |
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My new wine: Guess the Cultivars (2009-07-31)
I'm releasing my new wine: "The Spaniard". This wine intrigues me. It's expensive to make, ... |
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