The sweet taste of success in Soweto

The festival was held at the Soweto Campus in the University of Johannesburg in Soweto on the 7 and 8 September and attracted 4225 new and seasoned wine drinkers with over 70% being between the ages of 18 to 40. This is an increase of over 50% in overall attendance since 2006 festival and over 300% in overall attendance since the first annual festival held in 2005.

David Sonnenberg, owner of Dienersontein Wines and instigator of Thokozani Wines, an empowerment farm attending the festival, said, “I have seen a 100% improvement in wine knowledge from people who have grown with the festival and attended year after year.” This sort of comment was common from most of the wine estates.

This year there was a marked difference in a number of areas, many of the Cape wine estates bringing in their top wine labels, which were very well received by the Sowetan public, and very popular. The additional big-brand sponsors added flair, colour and vibrancy to the main hall and VIP Lounge, which was peppered with South Africa's VIP's such as Lincoln Mali, provincial director at Standard Bank, Willy Madisha, president of COSATU, Bertie Smith, director Standard Bank Agri Division and Phorster Sambo from the Department of Land Affairs, to name a few.

Marilyn Cooper, MD of Cape Wine Academy and co-founder/organiser of the festival, said that logistically, this year's festival was seamless.

“We had small, strong teams managing every aspect of the festival personally and it made all the difference,” adding that micro managing a festival of this size and nature is necessary.

“Every person involved from wine estates, to press, to consumers, to VIP's, to sponsors are all just as important as each other in order for us to grow each of these segments simultaneously. Doing this will allow us to realise our primary objective, which is to grow South Africa's local wine consumer market by introducing our world-class wines to the majority of South Africans who could potentially constitute between 80% to 90% of our future wine consumers,” she said.

Neil Pendock, independent wine reporter and Sunday Times wine writer says, “It is the first real initiative of bringing wine back to the people.”

Willy Madisha, president of COSATU, said, “It is important to bring these wines to the people, as it needs to be accessible to all. It is our people that are out there that are working very hard making sure that these wines can be produced for the people of Soweto.”

Mnikelo Mangciphu, owner of Soweto's Morara Wines and co-founder of the festival, was responsible for managing the wines sales on behalf of the wine estates at the festival and said that wine sales were very impressive and all the wines estates were very pleased at the volumes they moved.

“Most popular were the sweeter white wines and sparkling whites and rosé's but this is normal in a young wine-drinking market. The wine estates loved the maturity of the Soweto crowd and their gracious, learning attitude towards wine and wine culture,” he said.

The festival's official media partner, Sunday Times, has three videos on the festival:

Winemakers in Soweto
http://multimedia.thetimes.co.za/view_video.php?viewkey=1c9c495413f934dd1a15

Comments from Neil Pendock
http://multimedia.thetimes.co.za/view_video.php?viewkey=3dc27118a0f19a198571

Neil Pendock speaks to winemakers
http://multimedia.thetimes.co.za/view_video.php?viewkey=d9a273f8bbb72be3a687

For further details email