Media inadequacies and wine show squabbles
Angry journalists
My dear husband used to
say that only hacks imagine that proper people are as intrigued as they are
by the goings on of the media. Probably he was right in this, so I will
excuse you if you leave a this point to go and find something interesting
and good-natured, like dear Cathy’s blog. (II’m sure I’d also be interesting
and good-natured if I was always swanning about Italy or California.)
First, I have to confess that to a severe come-uppance
because of what seemed to me some gentle teasing about the obsession with
motor cars in WineLand and the new Afrikaans mag from the same
stable, Fynproe. Or perhaps it was my whingeing about the
advertorials. Apparently, anyway, it was somehow all further evidence of a
deep-seated anti-Afrikaans sentiment. So our esteemed editor has been struck
off their Christmas card list! More significantly, off the long list of
those who receive the mags as freebies.
We’d always thought we were doing the publishers a favour by
accepting the free mags and allowing them to claim a big printrun and a
deeper penetration of Important People in the Wine Industry, thus helping
their advertising revenue. And in fact, to make the new exclusion even more
hurtful, I believe that some 90 percent of Fynproe’s printrun (of
about 13 000) is bring given out for free at this stage (so if, unlike our
ed, you are receiving it gratis and you like it, you probably don’t need to
bother subscribing for a good six months yet….).
Convinced
journalists
I do so admire
journalists who write what they believe, even if it means they risk people
accusing them of nasty things like conflicts of interest. Nice young
Jean-Pierre Rossouw (well, recently young) clearly had it burning within him
to mention in a recent Insig article his opinion that Beaumont’s
pinotage is one of the best in the country. Someone with less passionate
convictions might have felt modest restraint about publishing the claim,
given that he’s recently married into the Beaumont family. But not our – or
their – J-P. Actually, apart from the family connections, like so many of
our writers J-P has also manfully taken on the duties of acting as PR for
one or two producers: I wait anxiously for his first mention of a Paul
Cluver wine: will he grit his teeth again and force himself to say something
nice? [see comment at end]
Ambiguous
journalists
Another person who
unembarrassedly combines winewriting with PR is Emile Joubert, who also
sends out his usually funny GaljoenGat News (try
emailing him to get on his emailing
list). But a recent one had some of us quite confused. At first glance it
appeared to be trying to embarrass the editor of the Platter Guide by
expressing shock at rumours (of course he knew them to be true) that the
eminent Neil Pendock had been sacked as a taster for the Guide. It did quite
a bit of what appeared to be fawning adulation of Neil. But all that was
perhaps a superficial reading – as others pointed out, it probably did
Neil’s image more harm than good. Firstly by telling everyone that he’d been
given the push (so soon after being dismissed from the Trophy Wine Show
judging panel); secondly, by seeming to suggest that Neil’s place on the
Platter team should be ensured not through any relevant abilities, but
because of the perceived influence of his little column in one of the Sunday
Crimes supplements.
The
judging business
Talking of the Trophy
Wine Show (and I must do so carefully, given the disproportionate presence
of Grape personnel amongst the judges), there’s a bit of wry irritation in
the halls of Thelema, I rather gather. Gyles Webb (who’s been a judge on the
Show himself, so knows the risks) has hitherto avoided entering his wines
into competitions. Now, however, there’s a representative of a younger
generation at Thelema, whose ghastly Australian education in marketing has
endeared such things as shows and competitions to him. So this year Thelema
wines were entered…. Well, the Chardonnay got a bronze, but none of
Thelema’s renowned reds made it even to that not quite illustrious level.
No wonder Gyles is a bit miffed (although his wines were in pretty good
company). The question is: who will prevail next time the young Webb scion
wants to play the competition game?
The
Show business
Things seem to be getting a little tense, to say the least, between the
organisers of the WineX show and those who’re trying to muscle in on this
lucrative business (particularly lucrative if you can get someone to give
you lots of money as a sponsor, of course) with the forthcoming Joburg Wine
Show. You might have seen the correspondence on this website about the new
Show’s intention of catering to on-site wine purchases. Illegal! suggested
WineX supremo Michael Fridjhon pretty clearly. Not so, insisted Joburg Wine
Show organisers. The latest PR email from the WineX team, however, tells us
of a new ‘retail
opportunity for exhibitors‘. This is, it
portentously
claims,
‘the first (and at this stage only) legally compliant arrangement permitting
the off-consumption sale of liquor at an on-consumption wine event’. Well!
That does seem tantamount to insisting that the other lot are telling lies,
doesn’t it? After all, they have already claimed that they are doing
(pioneering, in fact) effectively the same thing – perfectly legally. How
will this all be resolved, I wonder. Should we rush along to the different
shows to see if fists fly? or court orders?
