The first tweets to go out were from
wine.co.za’s very own Twitter
account to get the participants to start a buzz on Monday, 27 June. Soon
thereafter popular wine review website Real Time Wine posted a
competition to their followers on their Facebook and Twitter feeds for
seats to the three South African venues (which were filled up in only a few
hours).
The evening started with some frustration as most of the mobile networks were
experiencing loss of signal which resulted in static twitter conversations with
tweets getting out long after they'd been sent or not at all. But this didn’t
seem to hamper the tweeters too much as a total of 388 tweets containing the
trending topic #LaViergeWines
were sent as well as a total of 110 tweets mentioning La Vierge's Twitter
handle @LaViergeWines.
The four cities of Amsterdam, Pretoria,
Johannesburg and Cape Town all started at the tweeting at the
same time but soon it was clear that each team proffered their pace. The Cape Town team seemed to be the most active users with the
top five users (calculated on amount of tweets) having been present at the Cape Town tasting
(@LaViergeWines, @kungfukittypow, @StefanLuka, @winecoza and @carla_wino).
The tasting kicked off in Cape Town with the
2010 La Vierge Noir which was served with a French Onion soup topped with a
cheesy crust and Johannesburg
chose to enjoy theirs with duck spring rolls. The top flavour components
identified in the 100% Pinot noir were rosewater, strawberries, Turkish delight
and mushrooms with the most entertaining tasting tweet made by @dannyrocketer: "Pinot Noir! Like being stroked
by a strawberry ghost! In the mouth."
The next wine on the menu was the 2010 Last Temptation
Riesling which showed peach, apricot and floral characters with a fresh acidity
as noted by the tasters. Pretoria paired their
Riesling with oysters whereas Cape
Town chose to pair it with a selection of cheeses. One
of the stand out tweets on the Riesling was made by @kgbwine: "Surprisingly beautiful match of blue cheese and
Riesling. Brings out the melon, apricot type characteristics loooong
finish".
As the decision to switch to the next white was announced
@Merlot_Girl commented on the cheeky names of the wines: "From temptation to original sin, oooh how indulgent
& sexy". The 2009 Original Sin Sauvignon Blanc was next out the bottle
and lead to an interesting discussion with both Marc van Halderen (Winemaker)
and Krige Visser (General Manager) on labels and the decision that La Verge
made to break from convention to create a collection of wines with different
personalities rather than a range with identifiable traits.
The characteristics identified in the Sauvignon blanc were
asparagus, green pepper, apples and passion fruit and @samswaine summed up the
winemaking / marketing team's sense of humour perfectly with her comment: "La Vierge original sin sauvignon blanc. I've just
smelt it, not even tasted it. Better than an orgasm!”
The last of the whites the 2010 Jezzebelle Chardonnay was
also a big hit, even with those who didn't normally enjoy Chardonnay. The reds
kicked off with the 2009 La Vierge Nymphomane Cabernet Sauvignon / Malbec blend
that showed herbs and fruit and was paired at Balducci's with Lamb
barbeque-relish burgers.
When the next two wines, the 2009 La Vierge Anthelia
Shiraz / Mourvedre and 2009 La Vierge Satyricon Barbera /
Sangiovese / Nebbiolo were tasted the twitter chatter started to die down as
the noise level in Balducci's started to rise. The conversations were mostly
centred on the nudes on the Satyricon label which refers to a Roman
novel of lust and desire.
The evening ended with the last few tweets proclaiming their favourite wines
and their enjoyment of the event. @Blackdelilah's tweet summed up the
sentiments shared by all: "When visiting Hermanus visit @LaViergeWines,
unpretentious, sexy, fun but most of all damn good wines".
To view a selection of images from the intercontinental
tasting please click here. For a list of the venues used for the tasting and the names of all the tasters at the tweet-up please click here.