The Fair is an annual event held since 1921 and every year one
country is hosted as a guest of honour. This year, for the first time, it has
narrowed its focus by making the Western Cape, South Africa’s wine-growing
region, the official Guest of Honour of the Fair.
The 2013 Fair’s highlight will be the South African Cultural
Pavilion coordinated by South African Tourism in Paris, which will promote the
country’s gastronomy, art and crafts, culture and tourism infrastructure.
In addition, Vinidivio will showcase a total of 26 South African
wine brands and wine regions like the Stellenbosch American Express ® Wine
Routes, South Africa’s oldest and premier wine route.
South Africa’s Minister of Tourism, Marthinus van Schalkwyk,
expressed his support of the event: “France remains an important source market
for South Africa and is one of the top ten export markets for Cape wines. South
Africa’s wine tourism offering is unprecedented, complemented by the excellent
wines being produced, award-winning cuisine and a genuine warm hospitality.”
The Fair, chosen to be part of the South Africa-France
Cross-Cultural Seasons 2012-2013, will be widely advertised all over France and
South Africa.
2013 also marks 11 years of close cooperation between Burgundy and
the Western Cape Province and 13 years of an active wine-growing and
wine-making cooperation with a skills exchange programme.
An international wine competition of the Western Cape will be
organized on the basis of a blind tasting at the Fair. The panel, chaired by
Eric Goettelmann, head sommelier at the Bernard Loiseau group, will assign the
best South African wines at the Fair with silver, gold and diamond medals.
Stellenbosch
American Express ® Wine Routes will run a competition at Vinidivio, in association with South
African Tourism, giving two lucky winners the chance to visit Stellenbosch and
South Africa and experience the incredible wine tourism offering and
hospitality of the country first hand.
“We
look forward to participate at Vinidivio with fellow wine regions and the wine
industry and hope to attract a lot of interest for Stellenbosch as a top wine
and tourism destination,” said an enthusiastic Annareth Bolton, CEO of the
Stellenbosch Wine Routes.
The
Stellenbosch American Express ® Wine Routes is in the running for the Wine
Enthusiast magazine’s prestigious Wine Region of the Year title,
reaffirming its standing as a world class wine destination. It hopes to succeed
against tough competition, which includes Portugal’s Douro Valley; Paso Robles
in California; Spain’s Rías Baixas and the Walla Walla Valley in the
south-eastern region of Washington.
The
Stellenbosch wine region also boasts some of the country’s best restaurants,
recently clinching no less than nine out of the 20 nominations in the running
for the 2013 Eat OutDStv Food Network Top 10 restaurants. This is the best ever
performance by the now firmly established ‘Gourmet Capital of South Africa’.
Visit
www.wineroute.co.za or contact Tel: (+27)21 886 4310 for more
information on the Stellenbosch American Express ® Wine Routes.