It’s been another really exciting week at the office, with plenty happening in the stores.
I’m heading off to Cape Town for a few days to attend some new wine releases and hopefully discover a few exciting wines to bring back to the stores. It’s always something I look forward to, particularly the opportunity to catch up with producers and see what they’ve been working on. I should be back around Thursday next week, hopefully with a few interesting things to share.
New arrivals from Hamilton Russell, Ashbourne, Waterford, Platonist, La Bri and others have made their way into our stores. We’re constantly working on improving our selection, and I think the range we’re putting together is becoming something quite special.
I had the pleasure of tasting through a selection of wines from Klein Constantia this week, which turned out to be one of the real highlights. Vin de Constance was considerably more impressive than I had anticipated, and tasting through the full flight of their different Sauvignon Blancs was incredibly enjoyable. It’s always a privilege to spend time exploring wines of this calibre, particularly when you get the opportunity to appreciate the differences between them side by side. A sincere thank-you to the Klein Constantia team for the opportunity and for sharing such a wonderful selection of wines with me.
On the business side, we’ve continued making good progress with improving the way we operate and making it easier for customers to shop with us. We’ve been making a number of smaller improvements to this site, most of which probably go unnoticed, but all contribute towards making the experience a little smoother and more enjoyable. It’s something we’re continuously working on, and we’re pleased with the direction things are heading.
There are a number of other projects we’re particularly excited about, although I think we’ll keep those to ourselves for another week or two. There’s quite a bit happening behind the scenes at the moment, and we’re looking forward to sharing more as things develop.
Something I do want to speak about this week is our specials page: Over the past few weeks, we’ve put an enormous amount of work into improving our pricing, and I genuinely believe we’re one of the most competitive wine shops around at the moment. All of our current specials are available on this page, and while we’re still working on getting our full selection online, I think the wines already listed give a pretty good indication of what we’re trying to achieve.
The response so far has been incredible, and we’re extremely grateful for the support. What’s particularly interesting is that a large portion of our customer base hasn’t even visited this page yet, which makes the response we’ve seen so far even more encouraging.
Word of mouth has played an important role in our growth, and we’d love to see more people discovering the specials through friends, family and fellow wine lovers. The page is there to be explored and shared, and hopefully it becomes a useful reference for anyone looking to buy good wine at genuinely competitive prices.
We’re busy working on a few private-label wines for summer, including some new whites, reds and Cap Classiques. This is something we’ve really enjoyed developing over the past year, and we’re hoping to have a few interesting additions to share with you as we move into the warmer months.
Speaking of Cap Classique, we had a fantastic party in George on Thursday evening. It was extremely well attended, with a wonderful group of people joining us for an evening of really good bubbles and conversation. A big thank-you to everybody who came through, and particularly to the winemakers and experts who spent the evening sharing their wines and knowledge with us. These events have become such an enjoyable part of what we do, and it’s always rewarding seeing customers getting to know the people behind the wines.
Last night was equally entertaining in Mossel Bay, where we hosted a braai with the very famous Danie Steytler, the slightly less famous Wilhelm Pienaar and the mostly unknown Juan Koen.
Jokes aside, these guys are absolutely fantastic, and they made it a really memorable evening for everybody who joined us. The food was great, the wines were excellent and, as always, the company made the evening. We’re incredibly appreciative of the time and effort these guys put into supporting us, and I think our customers are getting to experience some really special evenings because of it.
I managed to spend some time with a client of mine last night, who happened to have a few winemakers from the Swartland staying over at his place. As you can imagine, it turned into a rather eventful evening, with plenty of interesting wines and conversation. A big thank-you to Marthinus for the hospitality. It’s always a pleasure spending time with people who share the same enthusiasm for wine.
Before I wrap up, there’s one more thing worth mentioning. Starting Monday, we’re launching a massive wine clearance sale, with some particularly exciting deals lined up. We’ve been putting quite a bit of work into this, and I think it’s going to be a lot of fun. Keep an eye on our specials page over the coming days, because there should be plenty worth looking out for.
Looking back, it’s been another week of small improvements, exciting arrivals and some really memorable evenings with customers and friends. There’s still an enormous amount we want to achieve, but I think we’re making good progress, and it’s particularly rewarding seeing more people becoming part of what we’re building.
Thank you again for the continued support, for visiting our stores, joining our events and recommending us to your friends. We really do appreciate it.
See you next Saturday.
Ben Zur
