The Masters of Wine Symposium takes place every four years and Rosa was invited to speak at the 2018 edition - #LivingWine - on an old vine panel alongside Marco Simonit and Kees van Leeuwen. Her first address on old vines, at the Institute of Masters of Wines' 60th anniversary celebrations, was in 2013 in London. Rosa tells us that there continues to be immense interest and excitement around the South African project, and everyone envies the Certified Heritage Vineyards (CHV) seal. Being the first industry-regulated seal in the world, the delegates voluntarily enforced our position as setting a standard (35 years and older, supported by the seal and SAWIS records). But, more importantly, the fact that we’ve actually shaped a new category is well supported and the international noise spreads awareness of these special wines.

Excitement is growing around CapeWine 2018. International visitors are, as usual, keen to see what has happened in the South African wine industry during the last three years. One of these developments is, of course, the Old Vine Project (OVP).
 
We have booked a 3x2 stand and our members are invited to showcase their wines. We’ve already had significant interest, both from producers not at CW2018 and those on their own or shared stands. Given the fact the old vine seminar is one of only a few seminars on the programme (and also the first), we consider it important to have a presence on the floor as well – a central point where key opinion leaders can call at for an overview or connect with OVP members. It is important to galvanise the story and value of our viticultural heritage and wines.
 

To highlight the OVP members’ presence at CW2018, we’ll have a device which can be attached to the relevant OVP stand. It will be similar to the Certified Heritage Vineyards plaque. More about this later.

Gys Liebenberg from Felco and Jeff Joubert will host specialised old vine pruning training in the first two weeks of July. The following dates are earmarked at this stage:  July: 05, 11, 12, & 19. Depending on the reaction, we’ll decide on the venues in order to group learners geographically.

Felco is also providing a secateurs service for OVP members, which is essential for the longevity of the secateurs, to ensure a better cut and increase pruning productivity. Felco will collect them from a central point post pruning season, service the secateurs and deliver them back to the same point. As an additional offer,  Felco will customise all new secateurs purchased by OVP members, either with a worker name or per brand.

Rosa and André will be in London from 09 to 11 July 2018 to conduct trade and media tastings in conjunction with the WOSA office. The main tasting will be a Certified Heritage Vineyards master class at High Timber.
 
If you are interested in participating, we need to know by 29 June and three bottles per wine need to be delivered to the WOSA office in London by 05 July.

Andre was the keynote speaker at this year’s Vino Varsity hosted at Backsberg where he talked about the sustainability of old vines to MBA students, followed by an insightful debate between Maties and UCT focusing on the Old Vine Project strategy.  

Format: Members meeting followed by a media, trade and private client tasting in a similarformat to the CHV seal launch in April at De Warenmarkt in Stellenbosch.
Date: End of October/beginning of November
Venue: To be confirmed