National pride peaked in 2010 as South Africa hosted the FIFA Soccer World Cup. Amidst a wave of architectural innovation and vuvuzela fever, our family eagerly attended four games at the new iconic Cape Town Stadium. What a vibe!
As the world shook off the dust of the 2008 recession, the next five years delivered a whirlwind of cultural and technological shifts that redefined how we connected.
In 2010, Apple launched the first iPad, forever changing how we consumed digital media. By 2011, global eyes were fixed on the royal wedding of William and Kate, followed by the viral explosion of "Gangnam Style" in 2012, proving that digital culture no longer had borders.
The era was marked by profound human moments, too. In 2013, we bid a final, emotional farewell to our beloved Madiba, while 2014 brought a new kind of hope as Malala Yousafzai became the youngest-ever Nobel Peace Prize laureate for her fearless fight for children’s education. By 2015, even our digital language evolved; Apple introduced diverse skin-tone emojis, finally allowing the world to see itself reflected in its daily communication.
And at wine.co.za, we continued to develop and grow:
Advent of social media
We were pushing the boundaries again, and in 2009 we launched our various social media platforms, employing the larger-than-life Serbian, Dusan Jelic. He visited farms, attended events and generally got the space moving, starting with Twitter, Facebook and then, in 2012, Instagram. He only just fitted into our small wine.co.za branded bakkie – and I remember him returning from his first visit to the Hemel-en-Aarde valley and raving about this brand new farm which was going to make waves. Guess who? Creation, of course!
Starting our own online wine store
2009 saw us finally getting our liquor licence after months of waiting and having to rent a separate warehouse, where our shop manager Sheryl Faure spent months all alone waiting for the licence! Our previous online store had been a joint venture between us and Steven Rom Liquors (Motti Lewis), and it was time to do our own thing.
We stocked almost all of our Wine Directory wineries' wines, and operated on a just-in-time way, so orders came in and then we ordered from the distributors and producers and consolidated orders at our warehouse (first in Strand, and then later at The Interchange in Somerset West). We also implemented our CellarDirect predecessor, where we managed wineries' online stores – and shipped many cases of our top sellers in those early years: Villiera, Raka and Cederberg, to name a few.
Buying our own warehouse/office and off to Europe in a campervan
2011 was also a whole new era for wine.co.za, as we grew out of our home office. We had been looking for the right space for years, and the Kingfisher Park light industrial space in The Interchange, Somerset West was perfect, and a blank canvas building site when we bought it, with the staff being horrified at our choice!
But we renovated quickly. We put in a boardroom and kitchen upstairs for tastings, a warehouse and built-in offices downstairs with the all-important kitchen – as much of our activities revolved around us enjoying good meals together. Many wonderful gatherings, celebrations, farewells, birthdays, and tastings were enjoyed there.
We even had an outside area where Garth and Kevin lit a braai for us on occasional Fridays.
No sooner had we completed the renovation and moved the team in, when Kevin and I disappeared to Europe for three months with the children, Leila aged 15 and Miles then 12, mostly in a campervan!
15-year olds don't generally like to spend every waking minute with their parents, so there were some tetchy moments, but on the whole, it was a most inspiring time and our kids have been given such a broad education in life. We even got lost in France driving from Paris to Champagne, and arrived just in time to have an incredibly expensive tour at Veuve Clicquot – 35 Euros each! We were horrified to find only one tiny glass of bubbles to taste at the end of our tour through the iconic caves.
Another surprise was to find all the Champagne houses in a row in the town of Reims, whereas here in South Africa we are used to farms with miles between them.
Miles soon became our resident navigator, and Leila enjoyed her long-awaited tiramisu in the Cinque Terre, and both had a ball at the Lambourghini factory in Italy!
Before it was viral: Our video revolution
Armed with my trusty Canon camera and a healthy dose of optimism, we started generating a mountain of content. This led to the launch of our One-Minute Winery Videos. Some were, admittedly, a bit "amateurish" in their delivery, but looking back, we were building the blueprint for modern video marketing long before the era of TikTok. Sheryl Faure and I spent many hours prepping and publishing videos.
We also knew when to stop being serious. In 2013, we took Santa Claus to the summit of Paarl Rock for our Festive Cap Classique Series. It was a legendary shoot featuring the "Royalty of Fizz" – Jeff Grier, Niel Bester, Pieter Ferreira, and Elunda Basson – hosted by our fabulous Mother Christmas, Shante Hutton.
And we didn't stop there. We invited winemakers to Xmas dinner sharing my favourite Xmas recipes. To see what their best Xmas recipes are, click HERE.
And then, to top it all, we got four of the top bubbly makers in the hot tub at the Sante Wellness Centre. Click HERE to see the fun.
The bubbles gang: Pieter Ferreira, Lizelle Gouws, Zwai Gumede, Steyn Fullard and Hendrik Snyman in the hot tub giving it horns!
Showcook's Inter Hotel Challenge launched in 2013 and we were involved right from the beginning, taking pics, interviewing participants and helping to spread the word. The first winner of the competition's Wine Steward award was none other than the now famous Tinashe Nyamudoka, then working at the One&Only in the V&A Waterfront. This competition, sponsored by Distell for many years, was a great spring board for many young sommeliers, including Ndaba Dube, currently the director of operations at The President Hotel.
Kudos to Annette Kesler and Chania Morritt-Smith of Showcook, who have turned this into a major professional growth program, with over 30 hotels countrywide participating.
It has become the Oscars of the hospitality industry, with the award ceremony at year-end being the glittering highlight of the year, celebrating all those hard-working hospitality staff.
Click HERE to keep up with all things Inter Hotel Challenge.
The inimitable energetic Jean Vincent Ridon is the brains behind the South African Wine Tasting Championships (SAWTC), launched in 2013. The format then was to have 30 wines in the room which were sighted and presented by the wineries, and then after that, to go into a room to taste just 10 of them blind and identify as much as possible. The top tasters were invited to be a part of Team SA, who were then taken by JV on a whirlwind tour through the incredible winelands of France, exposing their palates to international wines before competing on the world stage at the World Blind Wine Tasting Championships. And for the first time competing in 2013, TeamSA came 12th. Click HERE to read more about the inaugural championships.
Since then, TeamSA has competed every year, expanding their palate memories and doing really well at the World Champs. In 2017 there were enough Zimbabweans to make up a TeamZIM and the 4 wonderful guys were the main feature of the doccie, Blind Ambition.
2013 TeamSA: Jean Vincent Ridon (Coach), Gavin Whittaker, Roland Peens, Chantal Swanepoel and Khuselo Mputa (not in picture: Anton Swarts).
As usual, my camera was in hand, and we produced many photo albums of the various teams over the years. Well done to JV for managing to take teams over to France over the last 13 years, with Covid-19 pushing JV into creating tasting test tubes, the Vinitubes, which are now used for sending tasting samples around the world.
Judy with the TeamSA Shirt
To keep up with all things SAWTC, click HERE.
wine.co.za has been a super-proud media partner to the SAWTC since its inauguration.
Nose Your Wine videos launched
We have always been passionate about education and when the 2013 Best Young Sommelier of South Africa, Xolani Mancotywa and I connected, we had an immediate marriage of minds. We spent hours prepping and writing and eventually produced a set of useful re-watchable videos for the hospitality waitering community.
We did our first shoot at Simonsig just before Xolani went off to work in Dubai, and while I was editing the videos, I left my laptop on my desk at home and a very lucky opportunistic thief came in and walk off with my laptop and ALL our video material! So we had to wait almost a year before Xolani came back and we did a 2nd shoot. The joys of living in South Africa.
Xolani and our editor at the time, Shante Hutton, did a great job bringing wine knowledge and service tips to thousands. I even got our daughter Leila to be an extra in some of them, launching her movie career!
Thanks to Simonsig for hosting us to film our service tips videos in their Cuvee Restaurant. They were most generous! Anyone involved in the world of film will understand the many hours it takes to produce a short video!
Our Nose Your Wine actors, Jeremy and Xolani Mancotywa.
These videos still attract considerable viewership both on wine.co.za HERE and on our YouTube Channel.
It really is a massive job looking back at everything we did. There is so much more; we attended hundreds of events, many wine festivals, visited tons of wineries, hosted tastings, helped to launch The Garagiste movement with Tanja Beutler, and we even got to a few Soweto Wine Festivals in its hey-day.
30 years of connection
Today, wine.co.za remains rooted in that original vision: Using systems thinking to tell human stories.
What began as an on-ramp for an industry in transition has evolved into the reliable central hub where that industry meets, grows, and shares its success with the world.
We would not be where we are without the support of our many friends, our clients, the industry, and, of course, our wonderful team. A huge thank you to all!
For more on wine.co.za and our 30 years, click HERE. Keep an eye on our 30th Birthday Spotlight for more stories.
Let the countdown begin! This article is the third in our Countdown series – one per month till August, when we celebrate our 30th birthday.