The embodiment of Joburg’s food heritage, Andrea Burgener and Nick Gordon have set up an impromptu table at The Leopard especially for us, which feels like an act of considerable friendship because The Leopard, that beloved Joburg institution of excellent ingredients, irreverence and food that tastes resolutely of itself, is no longer operating as a conventional restaurant but rather as a glorious food emporium.
We are here because Abigail Rands, CEO of Krone, is collaborating with Andrea and Nick on a series of lunches later this year, bringing together compatible philosophies: good wine, good food, good farming and the conviction that the best things begin with what comes out of the earth.
Rands grew up in Franschhoek “when it was still a little town”, left home at 18 and promptly disappeared into the world. Indonesia came first, then London and Italy, where she studied fashion design at Polimoda in Florence before moving into luxury goods and working in branding and marketing at Ferragamo.
It is, in retrospect, an unusually good apprenticeship for running a South African wine estate.
“I think what I really brought back from Italy was this understanding of building a brand with cultural relevance,” she says. “I loved wine, but I also loved art. I thought, how am I going to bring these two passions together?”
Read more.