Dear <<First Name>>,

While our great domaines in Europe are about to welcome spring flowering in their vineyards, our South African compatriots have started to plant their winter cover crops. 

At Great Domaines we are constantly living two seasons at a time with one foot in each hemisphere; closely following the evolution of the vineyards and wines, and in between seasons, sharing and experiencing wines from both ends of the planet.

We are almost halfway through the year and it’s been a special start to 2019 for GD. Two of our highlights include the addition of another South African star to our portfolio, Mullineux & Leeu Family Wines and then in April we had Jean-Luc Pepin from the historical Burgundian Domaine Comte Georges de Vogüé here to present a series of tastings and dinners with South African wine lovers. This visit coincided with the launch of our highly anticipated annual Burgundy allocation campaign.

The second half of 2019 is set up to be a busy one with a series of positive changes in the pipeline at Great Domaines HQ. We are investing in new ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software to improve our operational systems, our new website is about to go live and we are busy building new office space and a tasting room so that we can expand our event offerings and experiences.

At the start of August, we will host our third annual Trade show and this year we will introduce an additional day to offer our private customers the opportunity to taste through our unique portfolio and meet local winemakers. In the first week of October one of our Great Domaines, Compañía Bodeguera de Valenciso from Rioja will be visiting us for the first time for a series of events and tastings.

We invite you to read more information on each piece of news. 

Warm regards,
Derek and the GD team

Introducing this year's cover of our annual Burgundy allocation booklet (as many of our loyal customers will know, those who receive an allocation of wine get a personalised booklet). This year, the cover portrays a horse ploughing a vineyard (as seen at Domaine de la Romanée-Conti or Michel Lafarge of Volnay). The artwork is a traditional linocut done by GD's in-house designer Christopher Anastasiades.

This year our customers received their allocations of the 2016 vintage. Some of our producers were badly affected by extreme frost which, in some instances, reduced production by as much as 75%. As a result, some of them have generously offered us some older vintages direct from their cellars which we have been able to share with our customers.

We are proud to add Mulllineux & Leeu Family Wines to our prestigious portfolio of Great Domaines in Gauteng. This estate needs no introduction as most South African wine lovers are already familiar with the winemaking duo, Chris and Andrea Mullineux, and the collective heart and mind behind their Swartland-produced Mullineux wines and more recently the Leeu Passant range of wines based in Franschhoek.

Since 2007 when Chris and Andrea launched the Mullineux brand, their ambition to bottle wines that are a true expression of the Swartland has led them to earn no less than 25 five-star wine ratings in the Platter’s South African wine guide and in 2014, 2016 and 2019 they were named the guide’s “Winery of the Year”.

In the second week of April we were very privileged to host a series of tastings with Jean-Luc Pepin of 500-year old Domaine de Vogüé and Burgundy specialist Remington Norman. Our guests were treated to a line-up of 2007 and 2014 Premier and Grand Cru wines from Chambolle-Musigny. Domaine Comte Georges de Vogüé is still owned by the family, direct descendants of the original Georges de Vogüé who gave his name to the Domaine. The Domaine is especially famous for its Musigny Vieilles Vignes, one of the most famous of the Grands Crus in Burgundy, Bonnes-Mares Grand Cru and Premier Cru Les Amoureuses (the latter here a Grand Cru in all but name).  

It’s very exciting to share the news with you that we will host Luis Valentin from Compañía Bodeguera de Valenciso in Rioja. It will be their first visit to South Africa, and will be taking place in the 1^st week of October. Luis Valentin, co-founder of the estate, will be leading a series of tasting and dinners. Valenciso was founded by Luis Valentin and his wife Carmen Enciso (hence the name Valenciso) in 1998. Rated as a second growth estate in Tim Atkin MW's classification, the estate, from humble beginnings, has become one of the shining lights in Rioja. Please click here if you want to be added to the guest list. 

On the 1^st and 2^nd of August we are going to host Great Domaines’ third trade show, this year at our own premises in Melrose Estate. This is an opportunity for the trade on the 1^st from 10:00 until 13:00 and for our private customers on the 2^nd from 17:00 until to 20:00 to taste the latest vintages of our South African portfolio as well as some of our international wines such as Champagne Lanson and Champagne Pol Roger. Save the date and RSVP if you are interested in attending.

In an effort to constantly improve the service we provide to both our producers and customers, we are investing in new systems and infrastructure.  

As per our previous newsletter, we are about to launch our brand-new website. This aims to align Great Domaines’ online presence with the culture, values and branding that we have worked so hard on establishing over the past 20 years. We also aim to ease the online ordering process that we offer to our customers, as we continue to move into a more connected and integrated online world.

Together with upgrading and updating our website, we are in the final stages of implementing a new ERP system which will allow us to further streamline the ordering, dispatch and delivery process. This in turn will decrease lead times, making the wines you order get to you faster.

Finally, we are busy building a brand-new tasting room on our premises to enable us to offer new, regular tastings of our local and international wines, perfect for private and corporate functions. We will also be moving our base of operations to the office space being built above this new tasting room, to integrate Great Domaines business with our own building entirely.

With all of these upgrades and improvements demanding more of our resources and time, we do apologise for the potential inconvenience caused to our customers and producers. Please be patient with us during this process. We rest easy in the knowledge that once complete, we will be able to provide you with a more integrated and complete experience with us.