COMMENTS
From Mark:
It is sadly not surprising that Distell admit to the practice. It is the
measure of the company that they need to pay for wine lists, if I had
that much crap wine to sell I guess my cheque book would also be used!
What about the guys who accept the money? Remember, this looks like
another scenario, a generally corrupt one at that.
From Poor Tom:
Aaah! Well all the moaning about the little guy and the poor consumer
might have paid off - but I\'m not going to hold my breath. It's quite
disgraceful how 'normal' this practice seems to be to the Big D.
Bertrand Russell - English philosopher - once said, 'Advocates of
capitalism are very apt to appeal to the sacred principles of Liberty
which are embodied in one maxim: The fortunate must not be restrained in
the exercise of tyranny over the unfortunate'. How true these words
sound.
From
Mark:
So what can be done? Who is wrong? The Distells, DGBs or the outlets who
are to lazy to know what wine can add to the bottom line without the
cheque, brollies, ice buckets etc? Jan, as CEO of Distel maybe you can
let us know what the policy is and why!!! Morals,ethics, these are at
play here. Ingrid Motteux wrote about this as well a while ago, funny
then that it is still common place. I for one praise the guys who have
integrity and take the time and effort to make sure that they have
balanced wine lists....
From
Nigel Cattermole:
Well well, The "Big D" has at last got the gonads to admit they have to
buy their way into business to get their wines on restaurant lists. Also
let us not forget their furniture and shopfitting division that saves
those poor restauranteurs from having to spend any of their own cash to
operate their business..
Branding through promotional
material is fine, being told that a restaurant wants a certain wine but
unless you pay them 8K it's no go is bordering on extortion, don't you
think?
Well done to good old Prof Kader
for waking up to this LONG established practice and let’s hope that at
last the Competition Commision looks into it.... I think the State would
love to get a few more R100 Mil in the coffers.
From
Carl van der Merwe (Quoin Rock winemaker):
I have encountered this a number of times during trade work in Gauteng –
one restaurant admitted to having shopfitted their entire store
including parts of the kitchen with listing fees from particular
enterprises. It is a great pity, but something which is on the increase,
with wineries scrambling for places on wine lists.
It
unfortunately does not say much for the restaurants who support such
practice. Generally these restaurateurs are too lazy to put any effort
into seeking out the best of what the Cape has got too offer and their
winelists are a sad reflection of the potential of South Africa as a
wine destination. A wine list, waiter and restaurant profile are great
marketing tools that not only help to position a brand but also help to
engender a culture of wine appreciation and wine education amongst
restaurant patrons. It is imperative that we grow and educate the local
market and that wineries move more wine locally rather than chasing
after foreign markets. Restaurants are a great tool to grow this share
and I hope that more restaurants will pay more attention to what they
list and the culture of their suppliers not too mention training their
staff and the correct serving temperature of red wine. Good on SAWIC for
conducting this investigation and I hope they blow the whistle loud and
clear.
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