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Wine and dine in the valley of plenty
December 24 2009 - By Bianca Coleman - IOL Travel Site

When we think of the winelands, Stellenbosch, Paarl and Franschhoek immediately spring to mind, but there is another region which is well worth a visit - the Constantia Valley.

It's a smaller and more intimate wineland, where everybody knows everybody else and there's a real sense of community among the wine estates. Constantia is also very accessible, being only 20 minutes from the city centre as opposed to 40 to 60 for those further inland. And of course, it's also the oldest wine farming area in the Western Cape, dating back to the late 17th century.

There are eight major farms in the valley: Eagle's Nest, High Constantia, Constantia Glen and the so-called "big five" - Constantia Uitsig, Buitenverwachting, Steenberg and Groot and Klein Constantia. With a bit of discipline, you can visit them all in one day, although there is a distinct pattern that applies to our visits to any winelands and that is that we tend to start running late right from the first farm.

The solution, of course, is not to be too structured because you definitely don't want to rush things, especially on a glorious summer's day.

We started at Constantia Uitsig, which houses the central information office for the valley, a hotel and spa, and is home to the award-winning La Colombe restaurant (Eat Out restaurant of the year for the second time in a row), as well as Constantia Uitsig restaurant and the River Cafe, which Luke Dale- Roberts of La Colombe and Scot Kirton have just taken over. We lunched there and it was just as fabulous as the other restaurants, but a lot less expensive. The confit duck leg was superb, and we also loved the grilled asparagus and wild mushrooms with a poached duck egg (no doubt from one of the farm ducks), artichoke cream, bacon and parsley dressing.

Before that though, we did a tasting in the wine shop, where the staff are friendly and helpful. For R20 you can taste five wines, including the limited edition MCC (Methode Cap Classique), the 2008 Sauvingon Blanc, this year's unwooded Chardonnay (and to my mind the flagship Uitsig wine), the 2004 Constantia Red and Muscat D'Alexandrie, which is delightfully pale pink, not too sweet and undeniably sexy. For R30 you get all these plus the 2008 Semillon and Constantia White.

After the full wine tasting and a comprehensive selection from the River Cafe's menu - which changes regularly when yummy fresh ingredients come in - we were already late for our next stop, Buitenverwachting, home of one of my all-time favourite and reliable wines, the Buiten Blanc. Oh, and the Christine, too.

Here you can taste whichever wines you like for no charge. Winemaker Brad Paton hosted us, although he didn't seem too impressed that a bout of flu had left me without a sense of smell. Luckily one of the things I could still taste was wine, so we had some 2009 Sauvignon Blanc followed by the 2009 Hussey's Vlei Sauvignon Blanc, which for the first time has come from a single vineyard and it's jolly delicious. Of course, I had to have a little Buiten Blanc as well. It would be rude not to.

Buitenverwachting has a fine restaurant where chef Edgar Osojnik will seduce your palate - the lamb done three ways is divine. There's a pretty courtyard where they now serve tapas from 3pm till 6pm, as well as a high tea buffet, or you can order a picnic basket to enjoy on the lawn. Along with your wine tasting you can have what they call a Winzer Platter (sold only in the wine sales available to guests when wine tasting), which is a wooden board with cheeses, cold cuts (kudu/schwarzwald bacon, salami), pickles, grapes and nuts.

Now hopelessly late, we roared off to our final destination for the day, Steenberg in Tokai, the oldest wine farm in the Cape. Winemaker JD Pretorious is just 24 years old, but proves that the new generation can show us a thing or two. I have the hugest crush on the recently released 1682 pinot noir MCC, and I'm also a big fan of the Steenberg reds, like Nebbiolo and Catharina.

You can taste several wines for free, and then there is the premium range of about six to eight wines that will cost you R50 to sample. Of course, you still get to taste the free ones as well.

Adjacent to the tasting room is the wonderful new Bistro Sixteen82 which serves breakfast, lunch and tapas, which you can read more about in this week's Top Of The Times. Apart from the winery, there is a hotel and spa, and a golf course on which Morgan Freeman was teeing off that afternoon.

CONTACT DETAILS

# Buitenverwachting 021 794 5190

# Constantia Uitsig 021 794 6500

# Steenberg 021 713 2222

Liquor Act in the spotlight again
September 02 2009 at 03:43PM - By Andisiwe Makinana

Nine months after it was passed into law, the Western Cape Liquor Bill is being sent back to parliament for further discussion.

It will be the third time this piece of provincial legislation - which promises revolutionary ways of dealing with the sale, supply and regulation of alcohol and has been in the making for eight years - is to be discussed in parliament.

It has already been passed twice.

In 2007, the legislature passed the Bill, but former premier Ebrahim Rasool did not sign it within the prescribed 45 days.

Another former ANC premier, Lynne Brown, signed certain sections into law in December, 2008 but former Trade and Industry Minister Mandisi Mphahlwa objected to section 48 of the act which deals with the sale of liquor on school premises.

Speaking to the Cape Argus yesterday, Finance, Economic Development and Tourism MEC Alan Winde said Mphahlwa had wanted section 48(4) to be amended by deleting the section allowing schools to obtain special-event liquor licences.

The said section made provision for schools to apply for a special event liquor licence to sell liquor for consumption on or off the school premises.

But the national department felt this clashed with the South African Schools Act which stipulates there should be no liquor on school premises.

Another major amendment to the act is to section 59 which deals with liquor trading hours.

This, Winde said, was a municipal issue under the constitution.

The amendment of this section meant the act had become less prescriptive, giving municipalities more freedom to determine trading hours, he said.

Earlier in 2009, businesses, tourism bodies and the provincial government under the ANC were up in arms when the City of Cape Town's draft liquor bylaw, which proposed more stringent trading hours, was published.

The City's bylaw proposed limiting trading hours to 11am to 9pm in residential areas and 11am to 11pm (on-consumption) and 9am-6pm for off-consumption in "mixed use areas".

Proposed trading hours for CBD areas were from 11am to 2am (on-consumption) and 9am to 6pm for off-consumption.

Then-finance and tourism MEC Garth Strachan described the bylaw as ill-considered and disastrous.

The Liquor Amendment Bill is expected to be published for public comment next week.


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DA slams QE2 decision
September 03 2009 at 01:43PM - By Clayton Barnes

The Queen Elizabeth 2, or QE2, will ship millions out of the country and deny locals a fair business opportunity if it berths along the Cape coast in 2010, Parliament's select committee on trade and international relations has heard.

Following a presentation yesterday by the Western Cape's Economic Development and Tourism Department on the province's 2010 readiness, committee members questioned the viability of having the liner berth in Cape Town harbour next year.

The QE2 was due to steam into the harbour next month, to help solve the country's 2010 accommodation shortage and pump millions into the local economy.
But committee member Eliza van Lingen, of the DA, slammed the decision, saying the berthing of the QE2 could have a reverse effect.

"Instead of bringing in the QE2, we should be looking at getting more local and township accommodation service providers on board," said Van Lingen.

"That vessel will be shipping a lot of money out of this country. I don't think it should berth here."

In July, the QE2's Dubai-based owners announced that, after extensive negotiations with the national Tourism Department, it was confident the QE2 would berth in Cape Town harbour next month, and remain here until at least December 2010.

At the time, the department said it had given the plan its full blessing, but that the Transnet board and the National Ports Authority would make a final determination regarding the viability of its berthing here.

On Tuesday, Cape Town port manager Sanjay Govan said the port authority had informed the vessel's owners that it was unsafe to berth in any of its terminals. This was because of space constraints.

Dubai World was however in negotiations with other private terminal owners to find an alternative berth there for the event, he said.

The QE2 has berthed in Cape Town before, but always in a private terminal.

Fifa president Sepp Blatter has said that cruise ships could solve a shortage of 15 000 hotel beds for the month-long tournament.

The co-ordinator of the Western Cape's 2010 unit, Laurine Platzky, said there were a number of accommodation establishments in the city, but that more than 50 percent of these were outside the Cape metropole.

"I can't comment on the QE2 as that is an arrangement with the port authorities," said Platzky.

"What I can say is that there are a number of establishments that have not signed up with MATCH hospitality (Fifa's official hospitality partner). This is not a time to be greedy, but to invest and to attract as many guests as possible."

The QE2 was built in Scotland and launched on September 20, 1967 by Queen Elizabeth II. By the time the ship was retired in November, after 40 years of service for Cunard, the QE2 had sailed more than 6 million nautical miles, carried 2.5 million passengers and completed 806 transatlantic crossings.

Nakheel Hotels, part of Dubai World, bought the vessel in 2007 for $100-million (about R790-million).

o This article was originally published on page 4 of Cape Argus on September 03, 2009

EMIGRATION

The curious case of the ex-South Africans
ILHAM RAWOOT - Dec 23 2009 14:35

"You become an ex-South African the minute you step on the plane. South Africans view emigration as abandoning their country."

These are the words of Martine Schaffer, managing director of Homecoming Revolution, a non-profit organisation that encourages and aids the return of skilled expatriates.

Schaffer estimates that two million South Africans live abroad - mostly in Australia, Canada and the United States. Each month, she says, about 200 of them contact her organisation for advice on how to come home. Emigration is not a uniquely South African phenomenon, she says, but nowhere else is the act of leaving so steeped in guilt.

Not everyone agrees. Some, like Hilary Alexander, simply go in search of adventure. The 37-year-old copywriter "packed a backpack and left for London" in 1999 after realising that she was the only person at a workplace meeting who "didn't know what Leicester Square looked like". Alexander didn't imagine she would be going forever; she just wanted to see the world.

Alexander's experience explains why it is so hard to find official statistics on emigration from South Africa. Many people do not plan to leave permanently, but they go and somehow end up staying.

The last official study by Statistics South Africa claimed 16165 people had left the country in 2003: a 48% increase from 10890 in 2002. The study did not analyse the causes of this increase.

According to the department of home affairs' spokesperson, Siobhan McCarthy: "Our movement control system is designed to track people leaving and entering [the country]. It doesn't record why."

Schaffer believes that fear is the biggest motivation for those who have made a conscious decision to emigrate: fear of crime, unemployment and political mayhem.

Brad Cossey, a 33-year-old programmer, left Johannesburg for Amsterdam last December, and lists his reasons as: "The high crime rate and not much hope for political change."

And 31-year-old Basharat Amien left for Canada in 2006, because, as a state-employed doctor, he was "nearly broke". He says "50% of the doctors in Alberta and 62% in Saskatchewan are South Africans".

Schaffer described to the Mail & Guardian the emigration trends that she has seen over the past decade. Although more black people are heading off these days, most emigrants are white, she says.

Schaffer attributes earlier waves of emigration to hysteria, generated by the political situation: "The people who left in 2000 didn't want this country to succeed. When the lights went out [in the Eskom crisis] they were celebrating."

Schaffer says 2008 was the year of "our biggest outflow". The people who left at that point felt they had "stuck it out and had given the country a chance. Then Polokwane happened, Zuma came into power, there was the Eskom crisis and they felt their fears became rational."

The fact that so many expats now want to return can be attributed to the financial crisis and because South Africa has more entrepreneurial opportunities than elsewhere, says Schaffer.

Maria Marchetti-Mercer, head of psychology at the University of Pretoria, believes that stricter border and visa controls are another reason for the decline in emigration: "In the big scheme of things there are lots of people moving all over the world. Countries, especially in Europe, don't want [more] foreigners."

Emigrants, it seems, realise that foreign pastures may not be as green as they once thought, but sometimes only one half of a couple wants to come home: expats have a high divorce rate.

Meanwhile, Alexander has returned to Cape Town after 10 years in London: "You go to work in the morning and it's pitch black and freezing cold. Every year I felt a stronger pull to come back to South Africa," she says.

Being away from home was "like walking for a long time with a stone in your shoe and you can't shift it". Now it's as if "someone has taken the stone out of my shoe".

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