THE Big Island of Hawaii is known for aloha, big surf and the quintessential beach lifestyle. But Pinotage? From South Africa? What does the country’s national grape have to do with all this “Aloha” from Hawaii?
Foodland Farms is an exciting range of top-market stores selling food and wine all over Hawaii. And getting into the wine swing, Foodland recently held a wine tasting event for a few hundred wine-lovers on Hawaii at their store on the Big Island. Well, according to Ed Treschuk from Foodland Farms, the big hit of this event was the Pinotage wine from Ernst Gouws & Co.
According to Ed, the popularity of this “gem” is that it falls square in the ballpark of American tastes. “Juicy plum and cherry fruit, silky tannins over a basking of integrated oak?+¦-+???+¦-ú?-¦?+¦-+?-+.” The visitors to the Foodland Wine gig were crazy about it.
Said Ed: “Most of our Mauna Lani friends had never tasted a Pinotage, or even any wine from South Africa. So it was fun to get their comments on this brand new wine experience?+¦-+???+¦-ú?-¦?+¦-+?-+ it was the most asked for , and most repeated pour at Mauna Lani.,Yippee!”
The Ernst Gouws & Co team back in South Africa were obviously overjoyed to get proactive response from a place as far away as Hawaii. But let’s face it, first question is: “Which one of us is going to get to visit Hawaii for a bit of surf and wine-tasting on the beach?” (If Ezanne Gouws is doing the tasting in a bikini, we will report on the event – Editor.)
Meanwhile,,on Mainland America, good news was also in the offing for Ernst Gouws & Co. Wine Enthusiast, one of the world’s leading wine magazines, picked the Ernst Gouws & Co Shiraz 2008 as a “Best Buy”, handing it a score of 87 points in the process! Selling for $11 in the USA and scoring a not-to-be-sniffed at 87 points is a tremendous achievement for a South African wine, one on which the Ernst team and the local industry can be proud.
Yes, when it comes to South African wine, we have to over-deliver in the quality-to-price ratio.
The scores will appear in the Wine Enthusiast’s December issue.
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Great job done:-)