some image

My Little Black Book

For the best use of a barcode in a label design, the award goes to…

Oscar Foulkes December 13, 2010 Wines No comments

Awards used to be simple things. Time’s Man of the Year (which one year went to the PC), the Novel Peace Prize (which used to be collected in person), or the Oscar for Best Picture.

These days there are awards in so many niche categories that almost anything has a shot at getting an award.

The wine itself is decent enough, but I hereby nominate Boer & Brit The General for a design award, framed around the use of the barcode in the back label design.

Graphic designers must hate barcodes. They spend hours coming up with beautiful or striking package designs, and at the end of it all they need to find a place to put the barcode. Boxed items are relatively straightforward, because there is always the underside of the box. However, wine bottles are harder. Even on the back label, the barcode is an imposition.

Hence, the way that the barcode has been incorporated into the illustration of the Voortrekker Monument is nothing short of genius. I like the way that the ‘A’ number – another mandatory inclusion – has been placed in the arch of the monument.

Back label of Boer & Brit's The General

Back label of Boer & Brit's The General

Boer & Brit's The General

Boer & Brit's The General

A tip on getting the maximum enjoyment out of this wine: It’s a 2009 vintage, sealed under screwcap and consequently so tight and unyielding that it’s almost impossible to get into. At Sotano restaurant last night, I asked for a decanter, or a water jug if none was available, much to the bemusement of the waiting staff. They would certainly have been even more bemused at the way the wine got hurled into the jug (I was after maximum aeration). It finally reached a point of some suppleness when we reached the last half of the final glass much later.

Putting the Family back into Family Day

Oscar Foulkes November 30, 2010 Wines No comments

Mention the word Joostenberg, and a whole lot of positive associations spring to mind. The first of these relates to their Chenin Blanc Noble Late Harvest, which I think is one of the finest botrytis wines produced in South Africa. When it was first released – coinciding with the Joostenberg launch in the late 90s, if I remember correctly – it was labelled as a Natural Sweet and was the first wine from the estate that we got stuck into selling at Enoteca. At twenty-something rand per half bottle we sold buckets of it.

The operation is run by brothers Tyrrel (winemaker) and Philip jnr. (marketing) Myburgh, who are both all-round great guys. Their sister, Susan, is married to acclaimed French chef Christophe Dehosse, whom I first met when he was the chef at the Vineyard Hotel’s Au Jardin restaurant. For the past ten years, or thereabouts, he’s been behind the ridiculously underpriced food served at Joostenberg Bistro, which is attached to the Myburgh family’s pork butchery. Philip senior has been farming pigs for more than four decades, which means that Christophe has a fabulous resource at his disposal.

Earlier this year Christophe opened Restaurant Christophe in Stellenbosch, which I’ve been meaning to get to. This man produces wonderful food.

We’ve had several fabulous winter lunches at Joostenberg Bistro, during which we’ve worked our way through numerous bottles of the Joostenberg Bakermat red blend. Good stuff.

So, on Sunday we had the opportunity of experiencing the extended Myburgh family’s wines and food in a different context, in the form of a family day at the Joostenberg manor house. For R110 per person (yes, that’s correct, one hundred and ten rand) we had the finest spit-roasted pork ever. Actually, it may have been the most delicious pork I’ve ever eaten. Days later, I’m still salivating over the milky tenderness of the ribs that I fished out at the buffet.

The barrel-fermented Fairhead Chenin/Viognier blend was a wonderful accompaniment to the pork, but it was as enjoyable when we were sipping it while sitting on picnic blankets in the shade of the oak trees.

From the teenaged Myburghs ticking visitors’ names off at the entrance, to Christophe tending the spit, and Philip, Tyrrel and their wives chatting to guests, it was a fabulous expression of hospitality. They certainly didn’t make a profit on the day, and may not even have covered their costs, but I very much hope they’ll do it again soon.

These days there’s no shortage of places to have lunch on wine farms; this kind of personal involvement (not to mention value) is rare. Make the most of it while it lasts!

Positive Joostenberg associations keep piling up.

A Taste of My Own Medicine

Oscar Foulkes October 27, 2010 Restaurants No comments

Life has a great way of dishing out a taste of one’s own medicine.

Take restaurant wine lists. These are guaranteed to get me grumbling, especially if the list has obviously been compiled by one of the wine distributors, without care being taken to put interesting wines onto the list (actually, drinkable would be a good starting point). I get really irritated if there is price gouging (like the Crystal Towers Hotel selling Warwick’s First Lady for R190), or if the restaurant doesn’t make an effort to get enjoyable wines onto the list at around R100 per bottle.

From November, Dish is taking over the restaurant at Theatre on the Bay. I’ve been involved in all aspects of the re-launch, but the one job I definitely wasn’t going to let go of was the wine list.

To simplify my task I restricted the selection to wines that (a) are from wineries that have been clients of Dish, or (b) are produced by family connections, or (c) are connected by friendship. These criteria leave several products that will come under consideration for future lists.

To begin, I selected three wines from Cloof, partly because they are brands I created, but mainly because they offer excellent value. Then I did something very uncharacteristic, in that I selected four wines that fall under the Distell umbrella. This vast producing wholesaler is seen as a monster by the majority of its smaller competitors, and its low-cost export products may well have contributed to price ceilings for South African wines in some markets. However, with the exception of the tobacco industry (yes, I know there may well be ethical considerations there), Distell has been one of Dish’s biggest customers over the years.

The most important issue, though, is that their portfolio extends way beyond the commercial brands. Within the Cape Legends stable (think Lomond, in particular) there are some fabulous wines. And, because their distribution costs are not only in-house, but also amortised across millions of cases of other products, their selling prices in many instances are very reasonable.

Alchemy of Gold is Distell’s campaign for marketing top-end brandy, and we’ll have five of their premium products, some of which will sell for less than the rot-gut tequila that gets sold in nightclubs.

Dish has catered for the nuptials of two Louw siblings at Diemersdal, from whom we have an elegant Pinotage and a Chablis-like unwooded Chardonnay.

The Arabella Shiraz (our house red) is made and marketed by my uncle, Stephen de Wet, and cousins, Jamie and Nicky de Wet.

Then, there are three fabulous wines we already had in stock – Cape Point Vineyards Semillon 2007, Chocolate Block 2007 and the Joostenberg Noble Late Harvest 2005. Mulderbosch Chardonnay gets a wild card ‘friends’ call-up.

We’ve kept the pricing as reasonable as possible, bearing in mind that our overheads have to be covered by one sitting per night only. It truly is quite sobering to spend a little time with the spreadsheets outlining the viability of a restaurant; it’s clear that wine sales are an important component of the mix.

I’m tempted, once we get going, to do a reserve list of a dozen, or so, Sauvignon Blancs. I may not drink that much white wine, but that doesn’t stop me recognising the excellence of this category. And, apart from anything else, pre-theatre diners in summer will be looking out over the ocean as the sun is setting. What better way to toast the end of the day than a glass of refreshing Sauvignon ?

A list of five whites, five reds (three of each available by the 150ml glass) and one champagne-method sparkling wine, is likely to leave some disappointed diners, especially as I haven’t included any ‘comfort-zone’ type products (think Haute Cabriere Chardonnay/Pinot Noir or Beyerskloof Pinotage). While the list is – inevitably – my choice, I hope that the exclusion of such wines isn’t seen as a judgement of individuals’ taste. All I ask is for open minds on the part of diners, who will certainly be paying less for wines that I have no hesitation in recommending.

I look forward to having a taste of my own ‘medicine’ when the Sidedish Theatre Bistro opens!

Download the wine list (PDF)

The Last Resort

Oscar Foulkes September 8, 2010 Books No comments

I have to admit to having been very reluctant to start reading The Last Resort, Douglas Roger’s family-based account of the crisis in Zimbabwe (or Zimbodia, as a Sunday Times satirist calls it). By default, any white person in Zimbabwe (especially an exile), is a victim, and there are only so many victim stories one can bear to read.

It’s not that I don’t empathise with what’s happened, nor that I don’t condemn Mugabe’s misrule; it’s just that Zim books seem to follow a theme. It’s also probably a lot harder for South Africans to read such accounts, because one can imagine the same thing happening here. There’s probably too much ‘structure’ to allow it to happen, but when one looks at the worst of Malema and other ANC comrades, it is possible to negatively predict a slow slide into the abyss. For us, Zimbabwe – both as a country and topic – is very close to home.

And yet The Last Resort is different. Rogers builds his story around characters that he has developed as well as any novelist. Whether they are his parents, surprisingly cheerfully – and at times grimly – holding on to their property, or the fearsome ‘war veterans’, they are fully-formed people that rise from the engagingly-written pages.

The central characters in the book are his parents, who may be more real to me because of their ‘Southern African-ness’, but I suspect they’d be as real to a reader in Los Angeles, London or Auckland. I’m not suggesting that being white and assailed in Zimbabwe is anywhere near the experience of Jews in the Holocaust, but I couldn’t help thinking of Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning, the central theme of which is that – regardless of how dire the circumstances – we have the freedom to choose our response.

Rogers doesn’t hold back on facts and figures, but because they are woven so seamlessly into a narrative of characters with whom the reader is able to empathise there is no chance of getting bored or overwhelmed by them.

Read The Last Resort, if not for the story it tells, then for the masterful way in which Rogers has told the Zimbabwe story with such humanness. And no ‘victims’.

In Amazon We Trust

Oscar Foulkes August 20, 2010 Web Tools No comments

When the all-encompassing history of online retail is written, it is likely that the author will identify trust – or absence thereof – as perhaps the biggest initial factor inhibiting the growth of ecommerce. Fears around credit card security have largely been dealt with by banks’ continually tightening up procedures, but the main issue remains: you’ve paid somebody for something that still has to be sent to you. What happens if they either don’t send it, or send a product that doesn’t do what it’s supposed to?

On almost every measure Amazon.com is the ecommerce benchmark, and for good reason. We had reason to contact Amazon recently about a faulty Kindle. Within two hours of the telephone conversation they had despatched a new device, along with instructions for returning the faulty one.

True to form, within a couple of hours of us sending them the tracking number for the Kindle we were returning, the cost of the airmail postage had been deposited into our credit card. And, within four days of reporting the problem, a brand new device arrived by air freight.

I’ve always thought that one should measure customer service levels not on companies getting it right (because that’s what is expected of them), but on how they deal with the unhappy situation of things going wrong. Amazon came through with flying colours.

What’s interesting is the way they reversed the trust dynamic; it became a case of them trusting us to return the Kindle, which is the opposite of how the internet trust thing normally operates.

Amazon is currently on a P/E ratio of over 50 (think about that; they would have to trade for half a century before their profits have recouped your investment in their shares!), which implies that a huge amount of brand premium and expected future growth has been built into the share price.

Effectively, investors are trusting Amazon to continue growing its business in a way that will generate escalating profits. As customers, we trust Amazon to deliver what it says it will.

Regardless of who writes the history of online retailing, one thing’s for certain; Amazon wrote the manual.

How to Increase Sales

Oscar Foulkes August 12, 2010 My Little Black Book, Web Tools No comments

Sales and marketing – or S&M for short – are often lumped together as one function. While they are related, and both necessary to the success of an enterprise, they comprise different stages of the product eventually reaching the customer. For me, marketing prepares the environment for sales; the textbook example of Kottler’s demand expansion. Sales is the process whereby one converts prospects into customers.

Whichever textbook one studies, though, the customers one already has are easier to sell to than the new ones one hasn’t yet acquired. With this in mind, it amazes me how few enterprises (they could be charities, too) maintain a customer database. And use it.

If you’ve been sitting on the sidelines, perhaps one of these inexpensive online solutions could tempt you into the game. Both iContact and Constant Contact offer the following services:

  • maintain mailing lists online
  • hundreds of newsletter templates
  • develop your own newsletter from scratch
  • do customer surveys
  • manage invitees and attendees for events

And, they both have sign-up forms that are easily incorporated into websites. Billing is monthly, and is generally under $10 if you have fewer than 500 contacts in your database.

Last week I played around with the survey functions, which I’ve never used before, and was amazed at how easy it was to construct a survey that could track seriously valuable customer preferences.

I also came across Omnistar, a highly sophisticated piece of software that one pays for once and which sits on your own server. If you’re a larger-scale company, the $287 is probably a better deal than a continuing monthly expense. It also offers campaign management, a very necessary feature that generally isn’t built into CRM (customer relationship management) packages. For people wanting to offer this as a service, Omnistar also have multi-user versions that can be white-labelled.

Doing it this way means you’re using your own internet service provider (ISP) for sending the mails (services like iContact send the mails via their own servers). Bear in mind that most ISPs have a daily/hourly limit on the number of emails you can send. If you’re getting limited by your ISP you could switch to SMTP2go. They offer corporate accounts that allow you to send up to 100 000 emails per month, not to mention my favourite feature, which is the ability to send emails from any location.

Someone who has given you permission to email them has given you privileged access to a precious place – their Inbox. I’d offer these as pointers:

  • don’t abuse the privilege, by over-mailing or sending waste-of-time content
  • as you’re writing the content, have a clear idea of what you want the message to achieve, or the action you want the recipients to take
  • keep it short and simple

If you feel you’re in need of extra guidance, Email Marketing Demon and Responsive Email Marketing both offer a series of instructional videos.

I’ve been writing and distributing emails for more than ten years. It’s something I enjoy doing, and which – thankfully – seems to get reasonable results (click here to read about one of the best ever). The resources listed above are useful if you’re planning to do it yourself. If not, drop me a line, and I’d be happy to see how I can of assistance.

Gewurztraminer Meets Banana

Oscar Foulkes August 4, 2010 Restaurants, Wines No comments

Often, I think, too much is made of food and wine pairings. Achieving the perfect complement between the flavours of the wine and food (in the midst of myriad subjective factors) is almost impossible, and threatens to distract from the enjoyment of either the food or the wine. Having said that, wine dinners can be an enjoyable way of spending an evening, especially if one is making new discoveries, and if the chef has been sympathetic to the wines.

I attended a Neethlingshof dinner at Sidedish last night, with the winemaker, De Wet Viljoen, presenting the wines. The menu had been compiled by Dish’s head chef, Arno Janse van Rensburg.

I first encountered Neethlingshof wines in 1993, when they supplied several of my Mystery and Eclipse wines. The most notable of these was a Cabernet Franc-dominated blend, called Vivaldi, which won several large panel tastings, out-scoring wines at double the price. Until that point, I don’t think Cabernet Franc featured on their radar screen. They had several vintages in stock (still in tank), so I could blend to my heart’s content. Those were the days!

Neethlingshof, now, is a quite different place. De Wet is clearly passionate about his wines, and it shows. My favourites were the 2005 Shiraz and 2010 Maria (noble late harvest), which were both delicious.

As far as the food pairing was concerned, the surprise of the night was the harmony between the 2009 Gewurztraminer and a dish that comprised fish (hake), fried squid, caramelised banana, guava sorbet, naartjie segments and a kimchee dressing. Fruit and wine are not always a happy combination, but there is so much going on in a mouthful of Gewurztraminer that one can get away with quite a lot. The Neethlingshof release has a fabulous acidity, which makes it a bit challenging to drink on its own. However, it was twice the wine when the sips followed a mouthful of food. Of all the flavours on the plate, perhaps the most surprising complement was with the banana. Wow!

The one rule I do have when it comes to food and wine pairing is one I borrowed from the Hippocratic oath: “Do no harm.” The seared sirloin tartare with lemon atchar and salted apricot purée was delicious, but the lemon and apricot clashed badly with the shiraz that accompanied the course. It says a lot for the wine that it held its own under the circumstances. Based upon cursory online scouting, the Shiraz is available at under R70 per bottle, which I think is extremely good value.

South Africa has a wonderful tradition of various sweet wines, whether botrytis or fortified. The Maria (from Riesling) is fabulous – a wide array of gorgeous fruit flavours held together by rapier-like acidity.

Falling under the umbrella of Distell (through their subsidiary Cape Legends), Neethlingshof is assured excellent distribution throughout South Africa. The wines are not at all ambitiously priced and worth looking out for.

Oh, The Places You’ll Go!

Oscar Foulkes July 24, 2010 Books 1 comment

I sometimes get asked, as one does, for a list of my favourite books of all time. The one I’m about to share with you may not get into even the top 1000 of the most absorbing, entertaining or stimulating books. However, it’s right up there as a simple encapsulation of life wisdom. Moreover – without question – it is the most surprising source of such guidance ever.

If I told you that this gem was penned by Dr Seuss you’d probably doubt my sanity.

So, the cat is out of the hat, if you’ll excuse the expression. The book’s title is Oh, the Places You’ll Go! True to form, it has all the typically crazy pictures and delightfully rhythmical text that just begs to be read aloud.

As you read it you may recognise some of your own experiences. I’m tempted to quote selected lines, but that – I’ve decided – just wouldn’t do the book justice. I’ll simply leave you with the first two pages:
“Congratulations!
Today is your day
You’re off to Great Places!
You’re off and away!
You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself any direction you choose.
You’re on your own. And you know what you know.
And YOU are the guy who’ll decide where to go.”

Buy it for yourself. Buy dozens of copies to give away to friends. Make sure you read it aloud.

Vaudeville’s July Menu

Oscar Foulkes June 30, 2010 Tags: Restaurants 1 comment

Lobster and linefish with a mild and fragrant curry sauce on basmati rice and greens

It is sensible, when feeding many people off a set menu that offers only three main course options (meat, fish or vegetarian), to stick to the safe, middle-of-the-road options. Any menu items that deviate from the broadest base of acceptance run the risk of creating problems due to the limited number of diners that would find them acceptable. There is a reason why airlines serve “chicken or beef?”

Before getting to some background detail on Vaudeville’s July menu, I need to ask: is it sensible to dangle upside-down several metres above the ground, supported only by some fabric wrapped around one’s ankles? Is it sensible to juggle eggs? And who in their right mind does the hula hoop with a flaming hoop while semi-naked?

In the light of what happens on the Vaudeville stage, the risks we have taken with Vaudeville’s July menu are probably not at all risque.

The first of these is the inclusion of lobster in the fish main course – Lobster and linefish with a mild and fragrant curry sauce on basmati rice and greens. We make the curry sauce without any shellfish stock, and we’re happy to serve the dish without the lobster, but guests that order the full monty can look forward to a delicious combination of flavours. The curry is more fragrant than ‘chilli hot’, which complements the lobster and fish extremely well.

Slow-roasted Springbok shank with roast garlic mash, roasted beetroot & butternut and blanched greens

The meat main course is Springbok shank (one of my all-time favourites, and a dish that is extremely well-suited to Inkspot, the house red), that we serve with roast garlic mashed potato, roasted butternut and beetroot and blanched greens. Being venison, springbok has a very low fat content, and is raised completely organically. This makes it an extremely healthy red meat choice. Springbok shanks are little smaller than lamb shanks, which are sometimes a dauntingly large mound of meat on the plate. Some types of venison have stronger flavour, but springbok is almost as mild as Karoo lamb.

Springbok meat is not Halaal. Upon request, we have Halaal meat available as an alternative.

Vegetarians can look forward to homemade gnocchi, which we toss with wood-roasted rosa tomatoes, sauteed mushrooms, pine nuts, parmesan and rocket.

Probably the only sensible things we’ve done relate to the two desserts. Due to popular request, the decadent chocolate torte makes a return. The pavlova with vanilla mascarpone crème and fresh seasonal fruits or berries is not only a light dessert option, but also suitable for wheat intolerant guests.

Inside Vaudeville’s red-draped walls and ceiling, where performers do outrageous things, and guests are invited to escape their day-to-day experiences for a few hours, you may be asked “springbok or lobster?” The waiter who asks this question may be a fishnetted woman, a glitter-lipsticked man, or perhaps even the top-hatted and corsetted Jennifer-trix. Under the circumstances, “chicken or beef?” would just be wrong. We don’t have anything against bovines or birds (even if they have breasts), but the occasion does call on something a bit more adventurous.

You may even find yourself having a jolly good time while not behaving at all sensibly!

Cape Town’s hottest new (old) address

Oscar Foulkes June 19, 2010 Hotels, Restaurants 2 comments

One of my favourite parts of the Cape Town city centre is the top of Adderley Street, where Wale Street joins from the right. If one continues up Wale it cuts right across the city (parallel to what would have been coastline), ending up in the Bo-Kaap, just below the point where the Noon Gun is fired every day.

Leading off towards Table Mountain from the top of Adderley is the avenue that runs through the Company’s Gardens. To the left is the Slave Lodge museum, with St George’s Cathedral occupying the right side of the avenue, which is also the south side of the bottom of Wale Street. The north (sea) side is a collection of historic buildings that most recently housed a financial services business. These buildings have been converted to a five-star Taj hotel. While it was still a construction site I was given a hard hat walkaround by the F&B manager, James Boreland (you can tell that I was trying really hard to get Cloof wines onto the wine list – ultimately to no avail). I was keen to return as a guest, but general busy-ness kept getting in the way.

On our way back from Cape Town station last week we’d stopped at the hotel’s Twankey’s bar, which is on the Adderley/Wale corner, for a drink. On a whim we booked a table at the Bombay Brasserie for dinner last night. I say on a whim, because if it we’d stopped to think about it we’d probably not have done it; the establishment could as easily be called the Bombay Buffalo (it knows how to charge). But then we’d have postponed even further into the future a fabulous experience.

The Bombay Brasserie is an intimate space, seating only 44 diners. Original wood-panelled walls remain, and the space is decorated in a classic style. Huge chandeliers dominate the space above eye-level, but don’t disturb the cosy lighting.

I should also add that during my visit to Mumbai late last year I’d been on a mission to eat cutting-edge Indian food. While it seemed that such restaurants don’t really exist, I was assured that the orginal Taj hotel’s Bombay Brasserie served very sophisticated food. That I didn’t get there during my trip further enhanced my interest in visiting the local establishment.

Yes, it is expensive, let me get that elephant out of the room, but no more than one would spend at any top-end restaurant in South Africa. Last month I was horrified to find Warwick’s First Lady on a wine list (Crystal Towers Hotel) at R190, making the Brasserie’s R160 seem less outrageous. We opted for the 2003 (yes, an aged wine on a Cape Town wine list) Glen Carlou Syrah, at R240, which appeared to be pretty good value, all things considered.

The service was exemplary. The maitre d’, Mafyos, assisted by Phinias, talked us through the menu in the most engaging manner. I’d go so far as to say that this was one of the best tableside presentations I’ve ever experienced.

We ordered four different starters (there were five of us at the table), which were shared. My first mouthful of Galouti Kebab was the most delicate morsel of lamb mince ever. The story goes that the dish was invented for the nobles who didn’t like chewing their food. This one was so soft that I couldn’t determine any trace of meaty texture.

The chicken tikka was juicy, packed with flavour and quite delicious with the mint chutney that accompanied the starters. We were similarly impressed by two vegetarian starters, one based on potato and the other on lentils.

We ordered five main courses – all delicious – but what blew me away was the spinach and roasted garlic side dish. The texture was the most delicate and fluffy puree ever, the colour was a vibrant green, and the flavour just exquisite.

As with the starters, we shared the main courses – Dal Makhani, tandoori fish on spinach and mushrooms, lamb shank, chicken pulao and a prawn curry. These were accompanied by steamed rice and plain naan. All the dishes were spiced – that’s why we were there, after all – but none of them was overly hot (in a chilli sense). I don’t think I’d want to be drinking cabernet franc or cabernet sauvignon with this food, but the shiraz was not intimidated by the spiciness of the dishes.

No-one could face dessert, but two of us had coffees. The total bill, including tip, a bottle of white wine and two bottles of red, came to R2350, which doesn’t exactly make the Bombay Brasserie a candidate for one’s local Indian restaurant. However, the entire experience was well worth it. If a so-so restaurant could easily cost R250 per person, I think it’s actually good value to remove the so-so from the list and rather go to an excellent restaurant half as often.

I have a feeling I’ll be spending a lot more time at the corner of Adderley and Wale Streets.