Wine Logistics

The world heralded the New Year with tidings of doom and gloom. We at Wine Logistics, on the other hand, feel far more optimistic. We would like to introduce two new wineries, Heron Ridge in Stellenbosch and Painted Wolf from Franschhoek. You may be wondering why in times of “winery overstock”, we would consider new labels. The answer is simply that we could not resist the quality of the wines produced by these two farms. Both producers are committed to producing wines in harmony with our environment and in the most “Eco” friendly way possible. Painted Wolf takes this idea a step further, in that a portion of the funds acquired from the sale of their wines is donated to help preserve the African Wild Dogs.

Wine Logistics will be able to offer this year a printing service for the convenience of our customers. We decided to take the plunge and invest in printing equipment and computers capable of producing wine lists and printed matter to help add value to our services. We are very fortunate to be able to leave this work in the capable hands of Andrew Huddy, who not only has an excellent knowledge of wine, but is also a qualified graphic designer.

It is therefore with pleasure, that we hold a glass of wonderful South African wine aloft and wish you all, everything of the best for 2009.

On the 2^nd February 1659 the then Governor of the Cape of Good Hope wrote in his diary, “ Today praise be to God wine was made for the first time from Cape grapes”. We at Wine Logistics feel very grateful and honoured to be part of the chain of vinous history in South Africa in this 350^th year of wine making in our beautiful country. Interestingly, the reason vine cuttings were brought to the Cape, was not to make wine for the amusement of the palate and recreational drinking, but for far more serious reasons. In Jan van Riebeeck’s day, available drinking water was not always safe to drink and it was known that any beverage which was fermented did not make people ill. Beer, wine and mead were drunk for the preservation of health rather than pure enjoyment, so the vines planted at the Cape were desperately needed to produce wine and unbeknown to Mr. Van Riebeeck he had planted his cuttings on some of the best terrior in the world.

We at Wine Logistics have now taken another step in the direction of supplying our customers with the very best of South African wines in the best of condition. We have started the refurbishment of our warehouse this month. The insulation materials are in the process of being installed and I should be able to report back in March that we are operational with a fully cooled wine storage facility.

We raise our glasses in a toast to South African wine 350 years old, congratulations.

We are officially "cool", with the help of Brendon Kelly and his expert team at Rhino Plastics we have a fully insulated wharehouse for our wines. We have been taking minimum and maximum temperatures for some months now to understand the heat sumation in our store and can say with confidance that we are now a minimum of 5 degrees cooler on average with smaller daily fluctuations between min and max.

The much talked about global recession has indeed reared it's ugly head in Gauteng, particularly in the on-consumption trade. We have sadly said goodby to several of our restaurant customers as they have been forced to close their doors. We have noted with interest and some pleasure that our selection of "value for money" wines have had a large increase in sales and that many on and off consumption buyers have commented favourably and shown much interst in our well priced quality driven stock.

Moving into the second quarter of 2009 we feel that our country and our industry are well positioned and prepared to weather the recesionary storm. We at Wine Logistics stand ready to offer our customers interesting and excellent alternatives to help balance tight budgets, but still keep our glasses raised high filled with quality wine.

Caryn and Team

April 2009

We at Wine Logistics see our priority to be the smooth and efficient distribution through the supply chain of our products. For some time we have been on the lookout for just the right person to head up our warehouse and distribution fleet. We are happy to announce the appointment of Donna Kroutz as our distribution manager. Donna struck us at our first meeting as being an energy filled exuberant people person, with a sound knowledge of supply chain logistics, gleened during her years with Parmalat and Imperial Group. Within days of her joining our team we noticed a renewed and jovial enthusiasm eminating from our warehouse and drivers teams. Welcome to Wine Logistics Donna and may we enjoy your services for many years to come.

Caryn and the team

May 2009

Wine Logistics not only distributes a wide range of South African wines, but also has for the past six years imported wines from Bordeaux and the Loire Valley in France. We feel very priveledged to be the custodians of these top quality wines from small privately owned vineyards in both areas. May being the month of the London Wine Trade Fair, we received an invitation to meet with our French producers at the Fair. I can say without reservation that the long journey to London was well worth the effort. The London
Fair in scope and volume and professionalism was more than impressive. I came away with the distinct impression that we in South Africa have a long road to travel before we can lay claim to an industry who has the sales and marketing acumen exhibited by our European colleauges.

After a very informative and interesting trip I arrived back to put the final arrangements in place for a long awaited and planned for expansion of the services offered by Wine Logistics. The 1st of June will see our distribution services being offered in Durban and Port Elizabeth.

We at Wine Logistics look forward to the future with enthusiasm and excitement.

Caryn and the Team

Winter made it's usual chilly arrival and sales of red wines are in full swing. I was lucky enough to be able to pay a visit to our new sales facility in Durban and spent a few days in the trade with our representative Doreen De Beer. Durban misses the highveld winter chills and so has a vibrnt holiday population at this time of the year, it goes without saying that the restaurant trade is more than busy and Doreen and I spent valuable time with our new customers introducing them to our excellent range of wines.

My Port Elizabeth sales team headed by Lauren Nash, had their hands full with our re-launch of the Excelsior range of wines. Peter De Wet co-owner of Excelsior with his father Freddie, flew in to host the event which was held at the Wickerwoods restaurant in Walmer. Prominet Port Elizabeth restaurant and liquor store owners together with the regional managers of all the national liquor stores were gracious enough to attend and we engoyed excellent food and very good company. We wish Excelsior every success in the Eastern Cape.

The begining of the "party season" started slowly this year with many of our corporate friends keeping a watchfull eye on the budgets. We were very pleased to show support for the South African Deaf Association with a donation of Excelsior wines for their fund raising function at Johannesburg University Campus. Team building took pride of place this month with our Durban, Port Elizabeth and Johannesburg sales representatives gathering in the Cape for product training at our farms, much knowledge was gained and fun had by all.