Renee started with wine.co.za on and off since 2006. She has been such a reliable and dependable soul in our team. She worked in our Content Team, did our Catalogues for WOSA and Nederburg Auction for many years, and has been running our News environment for the last 18 months with a wonderfully steady hand. She is moving on to be involved full time in the hospitality world. We are very grateful for Renee's steady hand and are sad to see her go, but we wish her all the very best in the hospitality world.
The Editor role has fallen quite naturally into Trudie (nee van Papendorp) Webb's hands. She joined us a year ago, and has shown such an enthusiastic interest in all things wine and media, that we have appointed her as our News Editor, effective from 1 Dec. We welcome Trudie to her new role in the team and look forward to her unique style.
Let's hear it from Trudie about her new shoes:
December marks a new chapter for me, and wine.co.za. We have to say goodbye to Reneé, our News Editor, whose attention to detail and calm control over news in the winelands will always inspire me. I now have some big shoes to fill and I’m left with nervous excitement for all the possibilities.
Instead of humming Christmas tunes everywhere I go, as we inevitably do this time of the year, I find myself stuck with Paolo Nutini’s catchy tune “New Shoes” in my head. Yes, one of the perks of my new role as News Editor is forcing my taste in music onto unsuspecting readers (brace yourself for some Bob Dylan quotes coming soon). New shoes, or new opportunities, don’t come around too often and I’m grateful to be given this platform to connect with our readers and build on the relationships already established with our wonderful wine farms through my role as Content Manager this past year.
My experience in forcing essays out of unwilling first year students while working at The University of Stellenbosch should come in handy but I’m certain that getting good stories from our wine writers will be much easier. The world of wine is as diverse as the world of language and literature from whence I hail, with serious reading material making way for serious wine, and rosé replacing an easy read. I’ve been known to get lost in a new book and it’s been fun getting lost in this new industry.
My parents were no oenophiles and growing up my idea of wine was limited to a few prized bottles displayed in our dining room. Christmas time and special birthdays would sound the call to open one of these treasured bottles or splurge on some bubbly and that has formed my love for wine. Celebrations. We celebrate with wine: birthdays, weddings, a new job or simply finishing a work day and it is part of so many special memories. I hope to bring that element to you as reader and show you all there is to celebrate ABOUT wine.
As I’ve come to know some of the faces behind the wines, the judges who carefully and with great knowledge select the award-winning wines, the writers who tell the stories, I realise how dynamic this industry is. The wine world is a thrill and I’ve adapted a new philosophy: sink or drink!