Go glam in Gugs: the Gugulethu Wine Festival returns

After the success of last year’s inaugural event, it’s no surprise that the TOPS Gugulethu Wine Festival is rolling out the red carpet again this year on 25 and 26 May 2012. The first festival featured wines from around the province, meat from Mzoli’s, a food and wine pairing experience and a lively, friendly vibe unmatched at a lot of wine events. This year the festival boasts more celebs, more food and of course, more wine – over 300 wines to choose from, in fact.

How you taste is of course, up to you. You can drift from stand to stand, sipping at will; you might opt for a more methodical approach, using the festival wine guide to plan your tastings or you can take a tutored tasting in the Nederburg Taste Theatre. Like last year, hourly food and wine pairing workshops will take place each evening of the festival, though this year they come with a celebrity teacher. For the opening night of the festival, at least, the cause and effect food and wine tasting will be hosted by Masterchef SA judge, Pete Goffe-Wood. In-keeping with the general laidback vibe, the taste theatre is meant not to inflict rules says Nederburg spokesperson Wencke Grobler, but to show people how to break them: “ We want wine lovers to free themselves from the burdens of dos and don’ts involved with wine and food matching. All we want is to show how you can enrich the pleasure of the wine you drink by offering you the experience of combining it in a way that brings compatible flavours together.”

With superlative wines to choose from, wine lounges to sip them in and food from four local restaurants – including the legendary Mzoli’s of course – to soak things up, the second Gugs wine festival looks set to be an awesome night out. Keep an eye on website to see what else organisers have in store.

The Gugulethu Wine Festival will be held on May 25th and 26th on the roof of the Gugulethu Square Mall. Tickets are R80 and include a tasting glass. Buy online from www.webtickets.co.za or at the door.