Pinotage gets set to tug 25 April 2008

Beyers Truter re-baptises a boat...

Few out there in the wine world have such a natural marketing suss as Beyers Truter and a cheerful ‘ceremony’ in Cape Town’s harbour earns his Beyerskloof winery an orchid.

Since the early 1980s, three tug boats have been criss-crossing the nation’s second largest port, dutifully guiding visiting vessels. Their names, many winelovers will be surprised to learn are Merlot, Cabernet and, yes, Pinotage.

Trust Mr Pinotage to pick up on the association for his brand by getting the port’s harbour captain, no less, to agree to a ‘re-baptising ceremony’ with one of Beyerskloof’s balthazars of pinotage.

And so, with due attendance this week, the ribbon was cut by captain Ravi Naicker and Truter and 15 litres of good red wine went into the waves. A dinner followed at the harbour master’s 10^th-floor mess down the jetty.

The event also marked the 20^th anniversary of Beyerskloof. The National Port Authority’s Pinotage tug is a bit older, having been launched in 1983. During dinner facts and associations were exchanged: at the last count, Beyerskloof had produced 10 453 103 bottles of wine, while the tug claims to have used 10 998 261 litres of fuel. The former has gone through  1 720 056 kilograms of glass, while the harbour boat has clocked up 53 082 engine hours.

COMMENT

From Monty Tallyard:
Meanwhile, over at Wine, Mr. Eedes pulls out his non-existant hair over the collapse of pinotage in his May edition [see latest Gulp!]. He takes himself far too seriously as nobody takes Wine's tasting panels seriously anymore - ask those producers who come top of a Wine tasting how many extra bottles of wine they sell. Zero is the usual reply.

From Johan Nel:
Come on, Monty, give the poor bloke a break! Much as I've maligned and trivialized Wine magazine's tastings (and the 5 star selection-advertising "special relationship") in the past – at least give Christian some time to settle in and make the clean sweeps so desperately needed. He's just returned from honeymoon – have the good grace to offer him an editorial honeymooon as well – then you can "give him a fair trial and string him up!"