Haut Espoir – Incogvino https://incogvino.co.za Mon, 28 Nov 2016 07:46:39 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.6.1 A Very Incogvino Year https://incogvino.co.za/incogvino-year/ https://incogvino.co.za/incogvino-year/#comments Mon, 05 Jan 2015 14:06:04 +0000 https://incogvino.co.za/?p=465 I’m not one for New Year’s resolutions and retrospectives. I used to be, when I was younger, but then I realised how bad I am at sticking to my lofty ambitions of bettering myself. So I stopped bothering. I pondered this post for a while. The idea was to write an end-of-year post before 31… Read More

The post A Very Incogvino Year appeared first on Incogvino.

]]> logo

“Without being known for predictable tastes and opinions”

I’m not one for New Year’s resolutions and retrospectives. I used to be, when I was younger, but then I realised how bad I am at sticking to my lofty ambitions of bettering myself. So I stopped bothering. I pondered this post for a while. The idea was to write an end-of-year post before 31 December 2014. That never happened, partly because of my professional level of procrastination and partly because internet connectivity in Stilbaai was practically non-existent this year. Then I wondered if writing a 2014/2015 New Year’s post wasn’t going to be utterly boring and predictable; was I going to write one just because EVERYONE is writing one? Do I really have something to say, or would I just be rehashing the year and end up sounding hopelessly beige?

2014 was quite a year, both personally and professionally. Despite all the ups and downs, I had a big idea for 2014: Incogvino (you can read about how it all got started here, I won’t re-tell the story now). With some help from talented friends and by joining up with Andy Hadfield, we breathed life into a domain I had registered on a whim years earlier. It was a place where I could write freely on my favourite hobby: wine. The essence of Incogvino has been and will continue to be spreading word on all things wine: that wine is fun; that wine doesn’t have to be smothered in pompousness and snobbery.

Most importantly, I wanted to drive home the idea that wine is for everyone and anyone. We Are Incogvino. An unassuming character. With oft unassuming tastes. Sure, boxed wine isn’t for everyone. But then neither is Châteauneuf-du-Pape. Why should anyone be shamed for what they drink? To each their own, live and let drink etc. etc. Just because I don’t drink katembas doesn’t mean somebody else can’t.

2014 was a good year for Incogvino. From our first post in April, we’ve managed to drink some fabulous wines, visit some amazing wine farms, send our SuperFANS to some exciting events, give away some free things and continue the tremendous Twitter tastings.

Twitter Tastings drumming up some social media noise

None of this would have been possible without our incredibly impressive member farms: Warwick & Vilafonté, Haut Espoir, Beau Joubert, Lithos and Môreson. The concept of the Incogvino Twitter tastings (as begun by Real Time Wine) just took off this year. We had massively successful, fun and exciting tastings with Lithos, Haut Espoir, Beau Joubert and Vilafonté – the latter taking it to the next level with an interactive tasting seeing Mike, Sophia and co. setting up a webcam and leading the tasting via live stream. Tastings had 20 to 30 people from all over SA joining at any one time. Dinner parties were set up, menus planned and prepared to pair with the wines, restaurant bookings made and tweets and photos flying everywhere. That’s a far cry from the five or six app users that used to gather fleetingly – and without much ceremony – to sip two or three wines and send three or four tweets about them.

Wine - more than just fermented grape juice?

Here we go.

So that’s it for the look back. Now I have to look ahead to 2015. And to be truthful, I don’t know what to expect. I have plans and ideas. I have a small but capable army of immensely talented people who are backing Incogvino. I want to grow this little passion project and I want to see it turn the wine industry, or at least the writing/blogging part of it, on its head. Ok, maybe that’s me tilting at windmills. But I want to try.

I want to shake things up. I want to do more. Say more. Write more. More wines. More farms. More of the usual fun stuff. More events. More hidden gems. More giveaways. More people. But also more opinions. More on the things I disagree with. More on the things that are controversial. More on the things that really grate my proverbial cheese (or crush my proverbial grapes?). And learning. Lots of learning. Wine is magic; I don’t think anyone can ever really know ALL the secrets. But we can give it a damn good try.

Pop those corks, lovelies. Decant and let breathe. Polish the glasses. And hang on to your Panama hats.

 

 

The post A Very Incogvino Year appeared first on Incogvino.

]]> https://incogvino.co.za/incogvino-year/feed/ 2 #TasteHautEspoir – A Tremendous Twitter Wine Tasting https://incogvino.co.za/tastehautespoir-tremendous-twitter-tasting/ https://incogvino.co.za/tastehautespoir-tremendous-twitter-tasting/#comments Mon, 08 Sep 2014 06:47:28 +0000 https://incogvino.co.za/?p=260 Haut Espoir. Literally translated, it means “high hopes”. And I certainly had high hopes for our Haut Espoir Twitter tasting. Not only has Haute Espoir been one of our longest standing SuperFAN Wine Farms, they are also amazing to work with. We don’t play favourites here at Incogvino, but if we had to, Rob and his team… Read More

The post #TasteHautEspoir – A Tremendous Twitter Wine Tasting appeared first on Incogvino.

]]> Haut Espoir. Literally translated, it means “high hopes”. And I certainly had high hopes for our Haut Espoir Twitter tasting. Not only has Haute Espoir been one of our longest standing SuperFAN Wine Farms, they are also amazing to work with. We don’t play favourites here at Incogvino, but if we had to, Rob and his team would definitely be contenders. But I digress. I could go on and on about the farm all day, but that will have to wait for another post. Right now, I want to tell you about what went down in Twitter town on Thursday evening.

Haut Espoir

Haut Espoir

This past Thursday, wine lovers from all over SA joined up virtually – via the Twittersphere (a twitter wine tasting!) – to swirl, sniff, sip, gurgle, gulp and imbibe in a handful of Haut Espoir offerings. The Incogvino SuperFANS were offered their pick of Haut Espoir wines a few weeks ago. Rob and his team put together two fantastic “Fan Boxes” for the SuperFANS to choose from. One was a Shiraz vertical box, with vintages from ’05-’09 (of which ’08 and ’09 are unlabelled and unreleased) and a bottle of Gentle Giant 2009 to round it off. The other box was more a mixed bag: Shiraz 2007, Gentle Giant 2009 (two bottles), Chardonnay 2010, Cabernet Sauvignon 2006 and a very special, not-released-commercially, botrytis Semillon Solera white port. Orders were put in and records were broken. Our SuperFANS have always been partial to buying a few bottles of wine when the Fan Boxes come around, but this time they outdid themselves. 73 Fan Boxes were sold. Most of those in the first two days of the offer.

Orders rolled in, invoices were sent off, EFT’s went flying and deliveries were dispatched all over the country. The date was set and the SuperFANS were prepping in all earnestness for #TasteHautEspoir. The Twitter tastings have come a long way and they have become events where wine drinkers gather, prepare special dinners to pair with the wines being tasted and invite friends to join the experience. #TasteHautEspoir was no exception. Here’s what went down, in tweets and images:

Haut Espoir is a boutique wine farm in Franschhoek, entirely family run, with the focus on making the best wine possible (and a spot of buchu brandy on the side). They’re also known for their conservation efforts, restoring fynbos on the farm, their BWI accreditation and simply for crafting truly fantastic wines. Even in an industry that is built on passion, you will be hard pressed to find a more passionate team than Rob and his family. For more information, visit their website or follow Rob (@rambowine) or the farm (@hautespoir) on Twitter.

The post #TasteHautEspoir – A Tremendous Twitter Wine Tasting appeared first on Incogvino.

]]> https://incogvino.co.za/tastehautespoir-tremendous-twitter-tasting/feed/ 1