Good Food, Good Wine and Good Design

Happy Monday folks

I don't know about you but I'm feeling extremely worn out by this year.  I'm desperate for long summer days that roll into one another with my feet up, a good glass of wine in hand and I long for the smell of a day long braai at the beach.  I'm basically Night of the Living Dead personified but at least there's one nugget of an experience that simulates my holiday dream: the annual Sanlam Investments FoodWine Design fair and thank goodness it starts on Friday.

I've been going to the FWD Fair since 2011 and I must say, it's one of the few annual events where I really felt like I was getting my money's worth.  Unfortunately really nice events that fuse good food and design are few and far between in this town, good being the operative word, so when this comes around, it's like the circus coming to a mining town. No Cirque de Soleil.  Except everything is grown and produced in South Africa, so while you're sipping on Sangiovaise or enjoying a delectable ciabatta and some insane cheese and cured meat sandwich, or buying a dress, painting or a wooden sculpture, you are also supporting a local business :-) 

Hungry yet?  There's a new feature to this year's fair called ''The Cookout''. Need I say more?  It's an all day braai section.   I remember a few years ago, I must have been 23 or 24, I went to my aunt's house for dinner on a Friday evening and before then, I didn't like white wine because it always made me sick.  When my uncle offered me a glass of white wine at dinner, I declined giving him my reason.  Not one to mince his words, he replied saying ''That's because you've never had good wine'' and for the rest of the night, I sat across him giving him death stares and snarling at his every persnickety word.  He was right.  The reason I hated white wine was because I went to Rhodes and the only other wine besides Tassenberg was, I'm probably gonna regret saying this....Paarl Perle and of course, the sight of that makes me sick.  And hence my dislike for white wine.  Thankfully my taste has grown over the years but I especially love going to this fair to taste new wines and learn more about wine in general. 

My family is coming to visit Joburg this weekend and I know my mom does not like organic chocolate (she was like ''what is this? give me Top Deck'' when I took her to Market on Main last year) but I'm going to rally them all to go and spend an afternoon there. I would highly recommend attending this if you had no plans this weekend.  Tickets are R80 and the fair starts on Friday and ends on Sunday.  Doors open at 12.00 and close at 10pm on all days.  

While I believe fairs like this are an antidote to the mall culture that's cramping our potential style as a destination, the other reason that I'm posting about this, is because I'm working with the organisers and Sanlam to help spread the word about this and of course, get more Joburgers to go.  That spells one word for 5 lucky people: GIVEAWAY!  

I'm giving away some #FWD hampers.  1st prize is Double tickets to the Fair and a R3000 unit trust from Sanlam Investments to help you kick start a lifetime dream.  That means I'd like you to share what your lifetime dream is.  Where would you go that would be a travel experienced that fuses wine, food and design?

 The other four prizes are double tickets and 2 bottles of wine from Newstead Wines.
All you have to do for these is tweet and share this post on Facebook using the hashtag #FWD

Cheers!