Perdeberg cracks the nod in Chenin Blanc Challenge

Riaan Moller

 

The drive up to Hidden Valley is not for the faint hearted. After turning of the Annandale Road hard by Peter Falke Wines, the road narrows alarmingly, and each approaching blind corner and rise pushes up the pulse rate from the adrenaline spurt which anticipates taking sudden avoiding action if an oncoming motorist, perhaps inattentive from imbibing at one or more of the many wine estates along the road, challenges you.

Health risks pose threat to alcohol marketing

First published in Bolander Lifestyle & Property, August 26, 2009.

Adrian Botha, director of the Industry Association for Responsible Alcohol Use (ARA)

The right to market alcohol beverages in South Africa is under threat, according to Adrian Botha, director of the Industry Association for Responsible Alcohol Use (ARA). “In my 21 years of dealing with this, I’ve never actually experienced such an amount of pressure on the industry as we have now,” he said. Mr Botha was addressing guests at a meeting of Rootstock, a wine industry interest group that meets regularly to discuss and debate issues of importance to the wine industry, at the Kleine Zalze Winery in Stellenbosch last Tuesday evening.

According to Mr Botha, part of the reason for the increased pressure on the industry, is the recent heightened level of interest of the World Health Organisation (WHO) in the effects of alcohol. “The WHO looked at alcohol last in 1983, but until recently was not that concerned about [it]. They had asbestos as a big issue, then they had tobacco, but that has changed,” he explained.