the vilafonte luxury wine blog

Jonothan Cherry and myself presenting at the SECOND BASE wine marketing conference

noreply@blogger.com (The Vilafonte Wine Blog) — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 12:14:00 +0000

Sent via my BlackBerry from Vodacom - let your email find you!

Bernard Le Roux was on hand to show off our winning wine at the Trophy Wine Show function

noreply@blogger.com (The Vilafonte Wine Blog) — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 13:48:00 +0000

Mike, Naftali & Friends at the Trophy Wine Show awards function in Cape Town

noreply@blogger.com (The Vilafonte Wine Blog) — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 09:57:00 +0000

The Vilafonte 2006 vintage was launched to the media at the Melrose Arch Hotel in Sandton

noreply@blogger.com (The Vilafonte Wine Blog) — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 09:09:00 +0000

Edward Pietersen (Vineyard manager) and Bernard Le Roux (Winemaker) on a Vilafonte 'boys night out'.

noreply@blogger.com (The Vilafonte Wine Blog) — Tue, 26 May 2009 11:15:00 +0000

Comments on 2009 Vilafonte Harvest - Zelma Long

noreply@blogger.com (The Vilafonte Wine Blog) — Mon, 25 May 2009 09:53:00 +0000

Overview:
From the Vilafonte perspective, 2009 was an exceptionally fine vintage, yielding beautiful fruit, harvested in perfect condition, with exceptional color and flavor intensity, characteristics which easily carried through into the wines. For example, our Merlot may well be the finest in structure, balance and flavors that I have worked with, anywhere. Our good fortune was that our harvest was complete before a siege of hot weather hit the later harvested red varieties, and we were shielded by mountains from the fires that burned around Stellenbosch to Somerset West. This was a harvest to celebrate!

The weather: The simplest description for the ripening weather, through to our final harvest, was: “consistent, and mild”. It is not unusual for the Cape to experience weeks of warm weather in December, January, or February, but in 2009 our Vilafonte site did not see high peak temperatures. Our harvest timing was fortunate to occur during the mild weather in February; slightly earlier than we had expected, discussed below.

The vineyard: Vilafonte vineyard was in excellent condition going into, throughout, and for weeks after harvest. The vines showed a healthy green and maintained good water status. As a result of the mild weather, the grapes ripened without the hesitation that is caused by hot weather that delays photosynthesis and sugar accumulation; 2009 mild weather gave a very efficient ripening curve.

The harvest: This 2009 weather pattern produced fruit with lovely acid balance from vines with normal but not excessive stress…beautiful grapes, small but not tiny; deeply colored with fresh, lively flavors. Our crop was modest, neither excessive nor tiny. Both total and extractable anthocyanins (color) were quite high; but tannins were ripe and appropriate for the respective Bordeaux varieties. Harvest started February 5 with Merlot, and Malbec followed immediately. Our Vilafonte estate harvest was completed with the last Cabernet harvest on March 2.

Brand Hooligans conference - Mike speaks

noreply@blogger.com (The Vilafonte Wine Blog) — Wed, 06 May 2009 09:17:00 +0000

Cherryflava conference: Brand Hooligans - Creating a brand experience that makes people nuts about you [video link]

On Thursday 28 May 2009 Cherryflava will host an experiential marketing conference in Cape Town called BRAND HOOLIGANS - Creating a brand experience that makes people crazy about you. The event will showcase the city's most creative and successful marketing practitioners in a unique marketing conference format designed to generate maximum insight into their successful strategies and future opportunities as they see it. It's a must-attend event for marketers, creative professionals, entrepreneurs and strategists keen to gain insight into how a carefully crafted experience can be the most efficient and effective marketing tool a brand can employ. Tickets to the conference are very limited. Only 30 are available for purchase. The speaker line up includes:

Rui Esteves & Brad Armitage [founders vida e caffe and and now Brewers & Union] - Building a world-class South African brand: The devil's in the detail
Jody Aufrichtig [co-creator of the Old Biscuit Mill and The Grand Daddy and one of South Africa's most prolific and successful business innovators] - Re-imaging the way things are done
Porky Hefer [celebrated creative director and founder of Animal Farm - an award-winning creative consultancy that is quickly redesigning the world] - Innovation inspiration from the world around you
Mike Ratcliffe [Platter's guide 2009 5-star award-winner and partner/owner of Stellenbosch-based Warwick Wines and Vilefonte] - Experience is the only real marketing tool we've got left
Gareth Cotton [the 24-year old entrepreneur and creator of Chariot Limousines] - 10 recession busting marketing ideas in 3 blocks
Jonathan Cherry [editor of Cherryflava] - How to market like Marilyn Manson

When: Thursday 28 May 2009
Where: Boo Radley's, Cape Town CBD
Time: 1:00pm - 6:30pm

Price: R950 per ticket. To book your seat: E-mail Jon Cherry - jon@cherryflava.com
Bookings close: 20 May 2009 [no tickets to be sold after this date]

[video link]

Mike tours China on a wine marketing trip

noreply@blogger.com (The Vilafonte Wine Blog) — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 14:06:00 +0000

Mike starts his reporting on an 8 day trip taking in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing and Shenzhen.

A great night in Shanghai with Simon Zhou from Ruby Red Wines and Victor Lee from Globus Wines

noreply@blogger.com (The Vilafonte Wine Blog) — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 15:08:00 +0000

www.globus-wine.com

www.rubyred.com.cn/site/en/index_eng.htm

To Russia with Love

noreply@blogger.com (The Vilafonte Wine Blog) — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 09:51:00 +0000

Mike Ratcliffe, Managing Director & Owner of Warwick Estate and Vilafonté Vineyards (http://www.vilafonte.com/) visited Russia on a wine marketing trip recently. Here he blogs irreverently about the experience.

Entering the Russian wine market is not for the fainthearted. The beaurocratic mess that is the Russian import regime makes South Africa's wine regulatory red-tape feel like a walk in the park. Add to that the shambolic politically motivated import restrictions and the punitive (and irrationally inflexible) customs duties and taxes and you have already accumulated a number of reasons to avoid the Russian federation all together.And so it was that I found myself facing a barrage of questions from a local customs official after disembarking at Moscow's Demondenova airport. To put it into perspective, the landing card containing numerous illogical questions (like university qualification, interests and hobbies etc) and needs to be filled out in triplicate. Despite a wealth of travel experience, I made the mistake of filling out the wrong form (in triplicate) and it was eventually explained that I had inadvertently used the form for 'Belarus' citizens and not the 'foreigners' form. Let me be clear that nowhere on the form did it mention any distinction between foreigners and Belarus residents.After navigating the murky corridors of taxi diplomacy, I seemed to be making progress. Stepping out of the airport into the crisp cold afternoon air was like getting slapped in the face with a bag of ice. Cold was the word of the day and boy was that word an over-traded commodity. After an hour of driving through a crazy snow-storm, I arrived at the Danilovskaya Hotel which was something out of a 1970's James Bond movie. Built to withstand a nuclear blast with windows designed to keep radiation out, this was a budget hotel in name only and without any service at all. Even asking the concierge (who didn't really speak English) to book me a taxi was met with an unapologetic scrap of paper with a phone number on it and a few other words in cyrrilic script. Communication in the Russian federation is challenging and I was quite surprised by my inability to decipher even a single Russian letter on signage or understand a single word of the local lingo. I downloaded a translation application on my phone and even this did not help as the pronunciations are challenging, even for a Stellenbosch educated Afrikaans speaking souty. I finally found that the only way to compare the words on the map with the words on the street signs was to compare the shapes of the letters.Now that I have set the cultural scene, let me explain that Moscow has never been accused of being a pretty destination. It does however have isolated examples of breath-taking architecture and somehow familiar examples of extraordinary (or grotesque depending on your angle) edifices that hark back to the days of the cold-war. I spent a late evening clearing my head wandering through Red Square in the driving snow and it certainly felt a little like a dream landscape, but the reality of mass unemployment and beggars on the street corner soon dispelled all hints of romanticism. I should also note that despite extensive investigation, there was absolutely no evidence of the iron curtain.Hot tip: There are easier places to sell wine, but the Russian market, even now, is flush with cash and if you can navigate the complicated entry procedures, South African wines are considered seriously good value and can, and do, make an impact. The Russian market is also untainted by any kind of historical (read early nineties) baggage that over-zealous wine marketers might have foisted on the British. Wines from South Africa seem to be considered cool and in the many high-end wine retailers that I visited were often positioned in the pride of place and amongst the best wines of the world. I also visited a couple of every-day supermarkets and was happy to see wines from South Africa being displayed prominently, and at price-points that seemed to indicate a relative value against our antipodeans and South American compatriots. Yes - the 'V-word' translates globally and it is just as valid here in Moscow. As an aside, have we considered how many people around the world that are trading down in price point, are currently trading down to the South African price-point. A wise man once said that there is nothing quite like a recession to realign markets and bring supply and demand back to an equilibrium of common-sense. Perhaps it was the same wise man that noted that some of the worlds biggest success stories were founded by opportunists and entrepreneurs during a recession. The South African value proposition is going to hold us in good stead over the ensuing months as the world shakes it's excesses out of the system.Back to Russia; the wine culture does not scream at you and to truly uncover the potential of this market you really have to scratch around a little. I did. I discovered wine, vodka and cigar bars hidden below ground behind unmarked doors. I found wineshops that were so eager to learn that they were prepared to shut down the store for an hour long presentation. I met serious sommeliers that actually listened to what a winery owner from South Africa had to say - and took notes. It is a far cry from some of the more established blasé markets that have been overrun by winemakers on their annual overseas holiday (read: wine marketing trip/employment perk) who are judged on their ability to limit their expense account rather than on tangible results.Some (secret agents and wine marketers) would suggest that departing Moscow brings a certain bitter-sweet level of relief and an inner calm - I would not disagree with this completely. Despite all of the mixed opinion above, Moscow has not scared me off - the market is exciting, edgy and pulsating with potential. A little adrenaline never failed to galvanise my resolve and I will be back.

Mike Ratcliffe with Carl & Denise van Coppenhagen from Hattiesburg MS

noreply@blogger.com (The Vilafonte Wine Blog) — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 21:00:00 +0000

________________________________________________
Mike Ratcliffe
Warwick Wine Estate
Phone: +27 (0) 21 88 444 10
Fax: +27 (0) 21 88 44025
Skype: mikeatwarwick
Email: mike@warwickwine.com

Mike Ratcliffe and Bartholomew Broadbent with Tasho Katsaboulas at Kats Wine in Jackson Mississippi

noreply@blogger.com (The Vilafonte Wine Blog) — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 17:09:00 +0000

________________________________________________
Mike Ratcliffe
Warwick Wine Estate
Phone: +27 (0) 21 88 444 10
Fax: +27 (0) 21 88 44025
Skype: mikeatwarwick
Email: mike@warwickwine.com

Visiting Drinx Wine in Mississippi.Bartholomew Broadbent, Matt Beard and Mike R.

noreply@blogger.com (The Vilafonte Wine Blog) — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 17:14:00 +0000

Vilafonte in the STAR newspaper - Johannesburg

noreply@blogger.com (The Vilafonte Wine Blog) — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 11:17:00 +0000

Mike has been selling wine in Moscow

noreply@blogger.com (The Vilafonte Wine Blog) — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 07:39:00 +0000

Here is a great clip of the Kremlin taken out of the window of the car en route to a wine tasting.

Zelma's grandson needs a favor....

noreply@blogger.com (The Vilafonte Wine Blog) — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 14:40:00 +0000

Vilafonte friends, a favor is requested of you. My grandson, Michael Freese of Calistoga, (Napa Valley) California, is in the midst of a "post card" competition in his 5th grade class. The competition is to receive post cards mailed from around the U.S. and the world. Those getting (a) the most post cards; (b) post cards whose sum total reflects the farthest distance; will win a prize. The contest ends mid May.

This, of course, is a great way to learn geography. Michael is using Google Earth to figure out how many direct miles each postcard represents. He would be thrilled to have you contribute by mailing him a post card (and I would be most appreciative). Here is what to do:

1. Select a post card and address it to:
                   Michael Freese
                   2103 Table Rock
                   Calistoga, California 94515
                   USA
2. Write at the bottom of the post card "Wet velociraptors make good pets".   (verification code for the project)
3. Write him a brief note, and sign. Be sure the origin of the post card is clear.

Thanks! You will make a young boy happy, and grow his knowledge of the big world out there.
Zelma Long
Vilafonte Winemaking Partner

Singaporeans, turtle skirt and South African wines as investments

noreply@blogger.com (The Vilafonte Wine Blog) — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 19:12:00 +0000

Thursday, March 12, 2009 by Kim Maxwell

Singaporean fine wine moments caused Kim Maxwell to ponder whether we have worthy investment wines in South Africa.

Asia's fine wine market seems to have attracted a lot of attention on this website recently. It brought to mind a Chinese wine dinner I was treated to in September 2008, generously hosted by long-time wine and food friends in Singapore. A mischievous, male-dominated group of lawyers, investment and financial consultants, a neurosurgeon, a crystal stemware supplier and a small-time wine importer, they call themselves the Monday Reprobate Table (MRT). If you've ever spent time in this humid city-state, the MRT abbreviation will also bring to mind their super-efficient, air-conditioned, ever-spotless mass rapid transit underground train system.

The MRTs have been getting together for years, finding flimsy reasons to tour overseas cellars, host visiting wine producers or get together at chosen restaurant lunch or dinner tables where managers allow them to bring out their own wines (BYO is not common practice in Singapore). Although they dip into the New World, France is their preferred drinking destination. But then French wines have been available longer than most wine-producing nations in first world Asian countries. Scouting the swish wine bar of the recently opened St Regis Singapore hotel for instance, I was unnerved to find wines on tap in a glass display case. No ordinary wines available by the glass here, but Châtour Latour 94 and Pichon Lalande 97 no less!

With impressive selections but none of that level of show-off silliness defining Singaporean MRT members' cellars, this group's criterion is simple. They take turns supplying the wines and hosting the group, plus partners, at a Singapore restaurant table on their respective birthdays. By chance I witnessed the tail end of one birthday dinner, arriving after the main course to see a table bulging with Riedels for 20 tasters - around 15 glasses per head - alongside individual dishes at a French restaurant. The mystery theme was Burgundy whites followed by reds, and discussion and merriment was plentiful.

My own Chinese MRT dinner a few days previously was a more intimate event with eight or so of the core members (partner-free) in the private room of the Imperial Treasure restaurant. Lawyer Tan Kah Hin delights in selecting a menu more exotic than his last, so that evening's line-up kicked off with his Dom P 2000, with a Lazy Susan of snacks including bean curd, warm red and yellow peppers, and pig intestine sautéed in sweet dipping sauce. To follow was suckling pig with crispy skin and the most delicious battered miniature fish fillets. As we warmed up, gelatinous shark's fin (something my marine sensibilities prefers to avoid) with an egg foo yong sauce arrived on a lettuce leaf. Members contributed foil-covered wines and the "guess it" game began. "Is it white, is it red, is it Chambolle or Gevrey?" they'd chant.

Personal wine highlights of many interesting bottles included Domaine Leflaive Puligny Montrachet 'Clavoillon' Premier Cru 2000 (outstanding despite its sharksfin partnership), and Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru 99 from Domaine Bonneau du Martray. The Vosne-Romanée Premier Cru 'Les Beaux Monts' 2000 from producer Domaine Bruno Clavelier offered a classic expression of Pinot Noir. A solitary Bordeaux, Third Growth Château Cantenac Brown 2002 from Margaux, made its entrance as an alternative to Burgundy, with succulent goose in its crispy skin. Its blackcurrant, violet intensity had an almost Syrah-like black pepper quality. Also delicious was stonefish with mustard greens, an ugly-looking specimen in the fish tank before its poisonous spikes removed. The intended high point of the meal was braised turtle skirt on Chinese spinach, prized for being rich in collagen - did I mention I was en route to Bali, where a friend has saved 3,500 turtles from ending up in the cooking pot over the years?

Sweets included a thousand-layer salted egg yolk cake. I'm familiar enough with Chinese etiquette to know better than to refuse generous hospitality, but I did scold Kah Hin gently about the turtle. "Next time we'll eat crocodile from head to tail, the feet near the ribs are the best part!" he declared.

I joined another group of Singaporeans for lunch at Terroir in Stellenbosch a few weeks ago. Enthusiastic members of the International Wine and Food Society (Singapore branch) they were out for a whistlestop tour of the Cape Winelands. With compliments flowing over the lovely South African scenery, food and wines tasted, it turned out that they'd been hosted at Kanonkop, Meerlust and Boekenhoutskloof. So the follow-up question from a wine collector took me by surprise. "Does South Africa have any investment wines, something along the lines of Australia's Grange?" he asked.

I nominated those same wineries as having established track records for producing fine ageable wines over consecutive vintages. But I had to acknowledge that we have no icon wine where older vintages appreciate in value, on a par with Grange. So I took the question to Roland Peens of Cape Town's fine wine brokers and wine storage facility Wine Cellar.

Peens says he's successfully sold older vintages of Kanonkop Paul Sauer, Meerlust Rubicon and Boekenhoutskloof Syrah for upwards of R600 or R700 per bottle (they charge a 20% brokerage fee). He's also seen earlier vintages of Vergelegen V sell online for over R1000, after release prices in the R700 range. Sadie Family's Columella fetches these figures too a few years after release, but then Columella achieves higher prices to start with. Peens agrees that we don't have a South African Grange, pointing out that it's difficult to develop a proper market for fine wines amongst South African collectors, local collectors being so niche they barely count. In comparison a huge amount of merchants in the UK offer vintage French wines.

One problem is that South Africa doesn't have a secondary market. Lacking the UK's bonded warehouses and auctions of wine for investments (where many Asian collectors also store their wines), it means every time wine is sold, duty and taxes are payable to the government. Buying wine from a bonded warehouse in the UK, those taxes aren't paid until the buyer requests to have the wine released. When fine wine is sold as a potential investment in South Africa, the duties and taxes have to be paid every time. And with our high interest rates, most South Africans would rather back an interest-bearing account to deliver. In wine you're not guaranteed a return.

This point might be overlooked if South African wines were considered rare enough. One such exception is the George Spies Cabernet Sauvignon 1966 from Stellenbosch. You've probably read about the wine being awarded 95 points inWine Spectator by James Molesworth during a 2007 South African visit. "I found a bottle of George Spies 1968 for R10 in a bargain bin," Peens continued. "We had it at a tasting the other day and it was phenomenal. It should be selling for thousands of Rand on a wine auction."

Peens wondered if the correct interpretation should be that great South African investment wines were amongst those made pre-1980s. "We don't seem to have a market for glorious older vintages. But I don't believe in local wines from the eighties or early nineties," he admitted candidly.

Tasting two impressive wine releases last week, the Vilafonté Series C 2006, and Morgenster 2005, I thought about local investment wines again. Both wines exhibit elegant blending, fine tannins and cellaring ability; initial vintages being held back until their makers were confident of what was in the bottle. Both achieved Platter five-star ratings for the first time in 2009, and have cellar door prices upwards of R300. Considerable thought and cash injections went into vineyard and cellar practices, and foreign expert input came from Americans Phil Freese and Zelma Long (Vilafonté), and Pierre Lurton (Morgenster) respectively. Although not referring to these wines specifically, Peens' outlook for top-end local wines seemed more optimistic going forward. "Perhaps South African wines are getting better and more age-worthy. Maybe in 10 years the investment picture will be different," he suggested.

I think he's right. Are wines such as Series C and Morgenster going to drink better after a few years of ageing? Unquestionably. Neither have the track record and history of South African competitor wineries, and there is no certainty that either wine will appreciate in value. But with world stock markets in flux, I reckon there would be riskier moves than gambling on a case or two of each. If all else fails, you could follow the example of the MRTs in Singapore after a few years cellaring, and drink it.

An African ‘El Bulli’ feast with Chef Ferran Adria

noreply@blogger.com (The Vilafonte Wine Blog) — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 13:57:00 +0000

By Mike Ratcliffe

Ferran Adria, the gastronomic giant of the gourmet world descended on Cape Town last week to participate as a headline guest in South Africa’s very own Design Indaba. There can be very few

industries in the world where one person can so single-handedly dominate and command respect from almost every quarter. Like Tiger Woods dominates the world of golf, über-Chef Ferran Adria reigns supreme in the more diverse,

subjective and opinionated world of cooking - a world renowned for its egos, tempers and back

stabbing antics. The tiny El Bulli restaurant owned and run by Ferran Adria has been called "the most imaginative generator of Haute cuisine on the planet" and named best restaurant in the

world a record 4 times by Restaurant magazine in 2002, 2006, 2007 & 2008.

And so it was that we gathered in an old warehouse on Commercial Road in Cape Town in anticipation of welcoming this giant into our midst. At the risk of suggesting any insinuation of disappointment, his arrival was underwhelming to say the least. The maestro arrived almost under the radar and slotted into the bar without a hint of pomposity or ritual. In fact he was quietly tucking into a cold beer and smoking a Marlboro on the patio before many of the assembled guests had even acknowledged his arrival. Accompanied by his charming and bubbly wife Isabella, she also acting as translator from their native Catalan, they wowed and charmed the collected admiring throng – never once declining to accept one of

endless admiring compliments, give out an autograph, engage in a friendly translated chat or even pose for a photograph. Given the global standing of this man, his impeccable stage presence and ability to appear interested at all times were beyond reproach – such is the burden of celebrity and such is the expectation of global recognition and awe.

We were, in fact, at this beautiful surprising venue for dinner and what a feast we were served. The brief for the evening (apparently) was to translate the term ‘local’ for Ferran Adria – define an answer to what it is that makes cooking in South Africa unique? And local we sure got! A snapshot of a few items on the menu included some imaginative combinations:

§ Biltong Pate, Apricot Leather, rocket leaves on vetkoek

§ Quail egg, Drizzle of buchu oil, dried Ostrich, mustard & arugula leaves

§ Harders, wild sage, seaweed, pickled kelp & bokkam salt

§ Pickled Fish, dried banana chips & toasted coconut

§ Gemsbok, suur vye konfyt, stamp koring & boontjies

§ Springbok tongue, onions, oreganum, red heart rum sauce

§ Ostrich neck Ravioli, mampoer butter

§ Zebra, wild Marog, amarula

To create this veritable ‘who’s who’ of South African staple food, Chef Richard Carstens of Nova in Cape Town teamed up with Topsi Venter, often described as "the doyenne of Cape chefs". Richard Carsten is certainly one of the hottest talents to emerge from South Africa and has appropriately developed a reputation for some ‘experimental and adventurous’ cooking that i

s not for the faint-hearted. While not for everyone, the radical and inspired menu threw up a lot of ‘culinary curveballs’ that were alternately dodged or devoured by the enthused gallery. Despite my best efforts, it was difficult to attack the Zebra with much gusto and the Springbok tongue felt perfectly inappropriate, irrespective of who it was being served up to. Despite my personal lack of enthusiasm for a few of the over-eager entrees, it did all somehow come together and sitting opposite Senor Adria, I noticed that he finishing everything that was served up to him – to his credit. The evening was perfectly managed by Richard Walsh, co-owner of Nova and one of Cape Town’s most seasoned ‘front of house’ directors in the business.

It should be mentioned that this extravagant evening was made possible by the generous sponsorship of Dick Enthoven & Robbie Brozin, MD of Nandos. Great credit should also be paid to Ravi Naidoo, the inspirational owner of Interactive Africa, the company that runs Design Indaba.

The evening was an excellent opportunity for his-foodiness, Mr Ferran Adria to experience some exotic and imaginative experimental African cuisine; but who better to judge than the man himself? Perhaps Ostrich foam or Zebra ice-cream will be the next big thing in the little town of Roses on the Costa Brava, home to El Bulli? Hold your breath if you must.

Bert Embrechts from Belgium visited South Africa

noreply@blogger.com (The Vilafonte Wine Blog) — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 13:41:00 +0000

350 Year celebration of South African wine

noreply@blogger.com (The Vilafonte Wine Blog) — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 14:17:00 +0000

Mike Ratcliffe of Warwick; Mrs. Kitty Petousis the owner of the Vineyard Hotel & Spa - Owner) with Cape Wine Master Dave Hughes and his wife Lorna.

Zelma gets profiled by Good Taste Magazine

noreply@blogger.com (The Vilafonte Wine Blog) — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 12:41:00 +0000

To colleagues, friends, and family:

noreply@blogger.com (The Vilafonte Wine Blog) — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 10:03:00 +0000

As you may know, I attended the inauguration of Barack Obama as the U.S. 44th President, on January 20th, 2009.From Sunday (when I flew to Washington) to Wednesday afternoon (when I flew home) I lived and breathed this event and all that surrounded it. On Monday I attended a law firm seminar on the likely changes due to the new administration; walked around the Capitol and looked at preparations for Tuesday, and attended our local Congressman's reception.On Tuesday, we (my cousin and I) left our host's home at 4 am, got to the National Mall (in front of the Capitol Building) at 7 am and settled in front of a Big Screen until 1 p.m. (in temperatures of around 15F). I can show you all photos of the "action" and play Obama's inauguration speech for you if you have an interest.The rest of the time I was either settled in front of TV watching CNN or reading newspapers (New York Times; London's Financial Times; Wall St. Journal); essentially immersing myself in this extraordinary event and all that surrounded it. (no, no glittering balls...!!).I am attaching a New York Times article that I thought was one of the most fascinating I read. It is about Obama's extended family. From Kansas to Indonesia to Kenya, and including a Chinese American and a Jew; a white slave owner and black slaves; the family historical and geographical reach is amazing.In our day and age of a global world; with our life in South Africa and its amazing diversity; with the U.S. as an "immigration nation" of many creeds and colors; his family seems to reflect what the world is today. At the very least his ascendency to the presidency is an amazing "American story"; at the best it reflects the ability of our world to absorb and reflect diversity.For my generation, who grew up primarily in a WASP (white Anglo Saxon Protestant) environment (but of immigrants from Italy, Ireland, etc.); our land has changed. And some find it hard to adapt to that change. (Many of them are in Alaska....). But for me, my original attraction to California was its diversity, back in the 1970's; so I find the growing diversity in our country's leadershipvery healthy.Not all may agree. However, I think no one can deny the human breadth reflected in the attached New York Times article about Obama's extended family... and I hope you enjoy it.

Zelma

NEW YORK TIMES ARTICLE

A Portrait of Change
Nation’s Many Faces in Extended First Family
By JODI KANTOR
Published: January 20, 2009
WASHINGTON — The president’s elderly stepgrandmother brought him an oxtail fly whisk, a mark of power at home in Kenya. Cousins journeyed from the South Carolina town where the first lady’s great-great-grandfather was born into slavery, while the rabbi in the family came from the synagogue where he had been commemorating Martin Luther King’s Birthday. The president and first lady’s siblings were there, too, of course: his Indonesian-American half-sister, who brought her Chinese-Canadian husband, and her brother, a black man with a white wife.

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When President Barack Obama was sworn in on Tuesday, he was surrounded by an extended clan that would have shocked past generations of Americans and instantly redrew the image of a first family for future ones.
As they convened to take their family’s final step in its journey from Africa and into the White House, the group seemed as if it had stepped out of the pages of Mr. Obama’s memoir — no longer the disparate kin of a young man wondering how he fit in, but the embodiment of a new president’s promise of change.
For well over two centuries, the United States has been vastly more diverse than its ruling families. Now the Obama family has flipped that around, with a Technicolor cast that looks almost nothing like their overwhelmingly white, overwhelmingly Protestant predecessors in the role. The family that produced Barack and Michelle Obama is black and white and Asian, Christian, Muslim and Jewish. They speak English; Indonesian; French; Cantonese; German; Hebrew; African languages including Swahili, Luo and Igbo; and even a few phrases of Gullah, the Creole dialect of the South Carolina Lowcountry. Very few are wealthy, and some — like Sarah Obama, the stepgrandmother who only recently got electricity and running water in her metal-roofed shack — are quite poor.
“Our family is new in terms of the White House, but I don’t think it’s new in terms of the country,” Maya Soetoro-Ng, the president’s younger half-sister, said last week. “I don’t think the White House has always reflected the textures and flavors of this country.”
Though the world is recognizing the inauguration of the first African-American president, the story is a more complex narrative, about immigration, social mobility and the desegregation of one of the last divided institutions in American life: the family. It is a tale of self-determination, full of refusals to follow the tracks laid by history or religion or parentage.
Mr. Obama follows the second President Bush, who had a presidential son’s self-assured grip on power. Aside from a top-quality education, the new president came to politics with none of his predecessor’s advantages: no famous last name, no deep-pocketed parents to finance early forays into politics and, in fact, not much of a father at all. So Mr. Obama built his political career from scratch, with best-selling books and long-shot runs for office, leaving his relatives astonished at where he has brought them.
“It is so mind-boggling that there is a black president,” Craig Robinson, Mrs. Obama’s brother, said in an interview. “Then you layer on top of it that I am related to him? And then you layer on top of that that it’s my brother-in-law? That is so overwhelming, I can’t hardly think about it.”
Though Mr. Obama is the son of a black Kenyan, he has some conventionally presidential roots on his white mother’s side: abolitionists who, according to family legend, were chased out of Missouri, a slave state; Midwesterners who weathered the Depression; even a handful of distant ancestors who fought in the Revolutionary War. (Ever since he became a United States senator, the Sons of the American Revolution has tried to recruit him. )
But far less has been known about Mrs. Obama’s roots — even by the first lady herself. Growing up on the South Side of Chicago, “it was sort of passed-down folklore that so-and-so was related to so-and-so and their mother and father was a slave,” Mr. Robinson said.
Drawing on old census data, family records and interviews, it is clear that Mrs. Obama is indeed the descendant of slaves and a daughter of the Great Migration, the mass movement of African-Americans northward in the first half of the 20th century in search of opportunity. Mrs. Obama’s family found it, but not without outsize measures of adversity and disappointment along the way.
Tracing Family Roots
Only five generations ago, the first lady’s great-great-grandfather, Jim Robinson, was born a slave on Friendfield Plantation in Georgetown, S.C., where he almost certainly drained swamps, harvested rice and was buried in an unmarked grave. As a child, Mrs. Obama used to visit her Georgetown relatives, but she only learned during the campaign that her forebears had been enslaved in the same town where she and her cousins had played.
According to Megan Smolenyak, a genealogist who has uncovered the roots of many political figures, Mrs. Obama has ancestors with similar backgrounds across the South. The public records they left behind give only the briefest glimpses of their lives: Fanny Laws Humphrey, one of Mrs. Obama’s great-great-grandmothers, was a cook in Birmingham, Ala., born before the end of the Civil War. Another set of great-great-grandparents, Mary and Nelson Moten, seem to have left Kentucky for Chicago in the early 1860s, a hint they might have been free before the end of the Civil War. And in 1910, some of Mrs. Obama’s ancestors are listed in a census as mulatto, adding some support to family whispers of a white ancestor.
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The jobs that her relatives held in the early 20th century — domestic servant, coal sorter, dressmaker — suggest an escape from sharecropping, the system that trapped many former slaves and their children in penury for generations.
Still, the family’s progress has a two steps forward, one step back quality. Jim Robinson was born into slavery, but his son, Fraser, ran a lunch truck in Georgetown. In turn, his son, Fraser Jr., struck out for Chicago in search of something better. But he was unable to find work, and left his wife and children for 14 years, according to his son Nomenee Robinson. As a result, Mrs. Obama’s father was on welfare as a boy and started working on a milk truck at 11.
After serving in the Army in World War II and finally securing a job as a postal clerk, Fraser Robinson Jr. rejoined his family. He was so thrifty that he would bring home chemicals to do the family dry cleaning in the bathtub. But his son — Mrs. Obama’s father, Fraser Robinson III — became overwhelmed with debt and dropped out of college after a year. He worked in a city boiler room for the rest of his life, helping to send his four younger siblings to college, then his two children, Mrs. Obama and her brother, to Princeton.
Classroom Values
For all of the vast differences in the Obama and Robinson histories, a few common threads run through. Education is one of them. As a young man, Mr. Obama’s father herded goats, then won a scholarship to study in the Kenyan capital. When Mr. Obama lived in Indonesia as a child, his mother woke him up for at 4 a.m. for English lessons; meanwhile, in Chicago, Mrs. Obama’s mother was bringing home math and reading workbooks so her children would always be a few lessons ahead in school.
Only through education, generations of Robinsons taught their children, would they ever succeed in a racist society, relatives said. “My mother would say, ‘When you acquire knowledge, you acquire something no one could take away from you,’ ” Craig Robinson said.
The families also share a kind of adventurous self-determination. In the standard telling, the Obama side is the one that bent the rules of geography and ethnicity. Yet the first lady’s family, the supposed South Side traditionalists, includes several members who literally or figuratively ventured far from home. Nomenee Robinson was an early participant in the Peace Corps, serving in India for two years; later, he moved to Nigeria, where he met his wife; the couple now live in Chicago. Capers Funnye Jr., a cousin of Mrs. Obama’s and a rabbi, was brought up in the black church, he said, but as a young man, he felt a calling to Judaism he could not ignore.
In daring cross-cultural leaps, no figure quite matches Stanley Ann Dunham Soetoro, Mr. Obama’s mother. As a university student in Honolulu, she hung out at the East-West Center, a cultural exchange organization, meeting two successive husbands there: Barack Obama, an economics student from Kenya, and later, Lolo Soetoro, an Indonesian. Decades later, her daughter Maya Soetoro was picking up fliers at the same East-West Center when she noticed Konrad Ng, a Chinese-Canadian student, now her husband.
Now the Obama-Robinson family’s move to the White House seems like a symbolic end point for the once-firm idea that people of different backgrounds should not date, marry or bear children. In Mr. Obama’s lifetime, racial intermarriage not only became legal everywhere in the United States, but has started to flourish. As many as a quarter of white Americans and nearly half of black Americans belong to a multiracial family, estimates Joshua R. Goldstein of the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research.
Diversity inside families, said Michael J. Rosenfeld, a sociologist at Stanford University, is “the most interesting kind of diversity there is, because it brings people together cheek by jowl in a way that they never were before.”
“There’s nothing as powerful as family relationships,” Mr. Rosenfeld said, “and that’s why interracial marriage was illegal for so long in the U.S.”
Initially, some of the unions in the Obama family caused consternation. “What can you say when your son announces he’s going to marry a Mzungu?” said Sarah Obama in an interview, using the Swahili term for “white person.” But it was too late, she said, because the couple was deeply in love.
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Now, the relatives say, their family feels natural and right to them, that they think of each other as individuals, not as members of groups. Ms. Soetoro-Ng said she was not “the Indonesian sister,” but just Maya.
A Special Reunion
On Monday, some of Mr. Obama’s Kenyan relatives milled around the lobby of the Mayflower Hotel here, their colorful headscarves earning them more curious glances than even the sports and pop music stars in the room. Zeituni Onyango, the president’s aunt, explained that their family had always been able to absorb newcomers.
Pointing out that her male relatives used to take on multiple wives, she said, “My daddy said anyone coming into my family is my family.” (Ms. Onyango, who lives in Boston, recently faced deportation charges, but those orders have been stayed and she is pursuing a green card.)
At holidays and celebrations, “you get a whole lot of people who are happy to be around family,” Craig Robinson said. “They happen to be from different cultures, but the common thing is that they are all family.”
“Like the inauguration, those celebrations draw on a happy mishmash of traditions and histories. Take the Obamas’ 1992 wedding, which included Kenyan family in traditional dress, a cloth-binding ceremony in which the bride and groom’s hands were symbolically tied, and blues, jazz and classical music at the reception (held at a cultural center that was once a country club where black and Jewish Chicagoans were denied admission).
White House events may now take on some of the same feel. Four years ago, when the family descended on Washington for Mr. Obama’s Senate swearing-in, Mr. Ng strolled over to the White House gates and took a picture of his then-infant daughter, Suhaila — “gentle” in Swahili — sleeping in her stroller.
Days before leaving Hawaii for the inauguration, Mr. Ng stared at the picture and wondered how much had changed since it was taken. After Tuesday’s ceremony, he said, “folks like me will have a chance to be on the other side.”
Jeffrey Gettleman contributed reporting from Kenya. Kitty Bennett contributed research.

What to drink on inauguration day???

noreply@blogger.com (The Vilafonte Wine Blog) — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 19:43:00 +0000

Fire on our neighbours property

noreply@blogger.com (The Vilafonte Wine Blog) — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 13:12:00 +0000

This was a fire on the 3rd of the January at our neighbors at the Coro Bricks.

Look how close at Rainbow chickens this fire was.

The Fire Brigade arrives just in time to stop it at the fence.

It was closest to them and very close to us.

Edward

February 1964 Playboy cover for Vilafonte and Playboy Joint Venture

noreply@blogger.com (The Vilafonte Wine Blog) — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 12:46:00 +0000