Joanne, who writes for among others Sunday Times and Signature Magazines, wins R30 000.
“Winning this award is the cherry on top of a very thought-provoking, fun exercise I had writing my piece,” says Joanne. “The topic participants had to base their entries on was very stimulating, allowing one to get into creative overdrive – something wine writers are not always given the opportunities to do,” says Joanne.
For this year’s Du Toitskloof SA Wine Writer of the Year Competition, entrants had to sketch a prediction as to what the South African wine industry will look like in 20 years’ time. Much of today’s wine writing takes cognisance of the developments the industry has gone over the past two decades. This year judges wanted to see entrants put on their futuristic thinking caps and sketch a scenario for South African wine 2035.
“The idea for my entry was planted during Cape Wine 2015, the international showcase event where the opening speakers were discussing the current state of the local wine industry,” she says. “I decided to write my piece as an address to Cape Wine 2035 and just let my imagination and experience of the wine industry take over from there.”
In her winning article, Joanne has the CEO of Wines of South Africa addressing delegates to Cape Wine 2035. Mention is made of the establishing of the Islamic States of Southern Europe (ISES) and how this affected wine production in Europe, South African futurist Elon Musk has turned to wine farming and is, inter alia, growing vines on Mars and the grape variety Assyrtiko is all the rage in South Africa.
According to Dr Gabriël Botma from Stellenbosch University's Department of Journalism who this year once again headed up the judging panel, this year’s topic saw a horde of interesting and engaging entries. “The open-ended topic saw judges tackle a really diverse selection of creative wine writing, which was not only stimulating for the entrants, but the judges too,” says Botma. “The standard of writing was exceptionally high, but the winning piece was in a class of its own and the winner unanimous.”
Johan de Wet, chairman of Du Toitskloof Wines, says that it remains a pleasure to sponsor this wine writing competition as wine making and writing are both creative pursuits.
“But when it comes to creativity in wine, the wine writers of this world lead the way in artistic expression,” he says. “No other consumable product attracts the amount of creative narrative, impassioned opining and determined expression as wine does – not to mention reams of adjectives I have yet to understand.
“As partners, wine writers guide us with their knowledge, inspire us with their wisdom and make us smile with the engaging and impassioned manner they approach their topic. And as sponsors of this wine writing competition we have helped develop fine pieces of wine writing that have been published nationally, and hopefully we have inspired new voices to put pen to paper and join South Africa’s wine writing fraternity, of which we as wine people are truly proud – as we should all be.”
Besides Botma, the judges were media specialist Ian Glenn, journalist Ingrid Jones and author and poet Joan Hambidge.
Caption: From left Johan de Wet, chairman of Du Toitskloof Wines and Pieter van Niekerk from Standard Bank with Joanne Gibson.