After a career of 30 years in human resources and information technology, McFarlane opted for his first love in life: writing about wine, food (through his Man in the Kitchen persona) and travel. He currently writes for Bolander Lifestyle & Property weekly and for Classic Wine and wine.co.za. He runs two busy blogs: Man in the Kitchen, where he shares his thoughts on wine, food and travel, and Norman's Musings. He also presents a weekly food column on Radio Helderberg 93.6FM every Thursday.
"I've won a number of journalism awards over the years, but this is without question the most significant, and most humbling to date," he said. "I'm honoured to be one of the very few who have won this prestigious award, the only of its kind for people who write seriously about wine in South Africa."
The runner-up this year was Edo Heyns, with an article on the Leafroll virus (published in Wineland Magazine) that impressed the judges greatly. "It was the best article I have read on Leafroll that a "consumer" might understand (in at least five years). Leafroll is a critical topic for SA, and increasingly the rest of the world. The fact that we have proven it can be beaten is momentous and, as such, worthy of words," said Bruce Jack.
"Leafroll Virus was the best writing on this subject I have ever seen, although it's clearly too heavy to appear in a non-wine specialist publication," said Matthew Jukes.
The articles were judged by an independent panel of local and international judges, which this year included John Platter (editor of the internationally respected Platter's South African Wine Guide), Matthew Jukes (wine columnist, voted as the UK's most influential wine writer in 2011) and Bruce Jack (Flagstone Winery winemaker, and winner of Wine-of-the-Month Club's Winemaker of the Year 2011). The purpose for the award is to celebrate the art of wine writing, and the articles were evaluated on both technical accuracy and literary quality.
