When we bottle a wine (whether single variety or blend) it needs to be unique in some respect; it needs to ‘speak’ to us. This being the case, the label should express the wine’s personality (e.g. Inkspot, The Dark Side, Daisy Darling, The Very Sexy Shiraz and others).

Laura was one of the more than 10 000 people rocking daisies at Cloof. Conditions were perfect for sunbathing on the Sunday, but the ground was still very muddy, hence the Wellingtons (which did double-duty as a ‘holster’ for a bottle of Daisy Darling).

We had an expanded presence at Rocking the Daisies this year. Instead of selling only wine we decided to run a restaurant stall as well. Making full use of our marketing department’s newest member, Jonno Proudfoot (pictured alongside), who trained and worked as a chef (most notably at Cape Town’s highly rated Ginja), we kept revellers well-fuelled over the weekend.
 

We are indebted to a liquor store manager in Newfoundland for the best summation of the process of wine marketing wine we’ve ever come across: “Putting it on the lips”

Only three vintages of Crucible Shiraz – 2003, 2004 and 2006 – have ever been released. One doesn’t need to be smarter than a fifth-grader to look at that sequence of years and spot the missing 2005. So, where’s the 2005 Crucible?