“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.

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.

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.

Last night’s debauchery that was #SirisAboutWineUnderground – four floors below the #UpperEastsideHotel http://t.co/zfO6dRLSsJ

— Darryn van der Walt (@darrynvdwalt) June 3, 2014

I chatted to Bubbles Hyland to suss out where they came up with the idea for #SirisAboutWineUnderground:

“Siris Vintners like to set them selves apart from other wine merchants.  

We are very passionate about wine but don’t take ourselves too seriously.  We want to break some boundaries that are set within the wine industry.  The only difference between every wine/trade show is the wine; why is the wine industry the only industry that stagnates and doesn’t move forward with the times? We want to attract a new generation of wine lovers; make it interesting, appealing to people of all ages, races, genders etc.  We didn’t want to put on a mundane wine show.

Every year we want to do something a little unexpected.  Last year we did a pop up wine show.  So the underground theme really came from that.  Building up some excitement and speculation about the event, the venue was decided first and dictated the theme.  We wanted to isolate ourselves with no distractions from the outside world including no phone reception. It created a feeling of a cellar. A certain appealing mustiness! “

 I couldn’t have said it better myself. A brilliant push towards the unusual, the exciting and the downright fantastic, the event was extremely well received by attendees and everyone was tweeting about it (after the fact, as the reception down below was practically non-existent).  

My favourite for sure Anura Cabernet Sauvignon #sirisselfie #sirisaboutwineunderground http://t.co/LJbURVeVfm — Leslie Maliepaard (@mydesio) June 2, 2014

Lukas #winehottie @grootepost showing one of Darlings finest pinot noirs #sirisaboutwineunderground pic.twitter.com/x0qeIrr0Qh

— Spit or Swallow (@spitorswallow) June 3, 2014

Siris Vintners annual event is open to the trade and press and showcases all the wines in their portfolio. The 2014 producers were Alphabetical, Anura, Arendsig, D’Aria, De Meye, De Waal, Groote Post, Moreson, Mullineux, Nico van Der Merwe, Nitida, Post House, Quando, Seven Springs, Signal Hill and Waverley Hills. The winemakers all attend, adding another level of interaction for everyone there beyond just tasting the wines.

Siris Vintners seems to have the right idea about wine, the industry and most importantly the type of people who buy and drink the wine. I am dying to see what they have up their sleeves for the 2015 event.

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