Wine Lovers Put President-Elect Barack Obama in Office

The presidential election is over, and President-Elect Barack Obama is busy interviewing potential cabinet members, but political experts will spend the next four years analyzing the election returns. A popular technique among political consultants in the past two races is microtargeting—looking for likely supporters by analyzing what they eat, what cars they drive, where they shop, even what magazines they subscribe to. But one factor they may want to be looking at is, which voters drink wine? Unfiltered's crack election team has crunched the numbers, and it's clear that states that like wine voted for Obama in overwhelming numbers. Nine of the top 10 wine-consuming states voted for Obama—only Texas broke rank and voted for Sen. John McCain. Looking further down the list, 20 of the top 25 wine-consuming states went for the President-to-be. In fact, the District of Columbia and the 28 states that voted for Obama drank 79.7 percent of the 300 million cases of wine consumed in the U.S. in 2007. (Wine consumption numbers by state come from the recently-released The U.S. Wine Market: Impact Databank Review and Forecast, 2008 edition, published by Wine Spectator's parent company.)

PLATTER WINE GUIDE AWARDS VILAFONTE FIVE STARS

At a function held at the Devon Valley Hotel last night, the 2009 'John Platter' Wine Guide was launched to the trade and media along with the much anticipated revealing of the 5 star winners.

The Vilafonté Winemaking Team is proud to announce that the Vilafonté ‘Series C’ has been awarded the 5 star rating for the first time. Californian winemaking partner Zelma Long had this to say; “We are thrilled with this award and feel that it gives recognition to our investment in South Africa, and to the passion that the Vilafonté partners have brought to our wines.”

Vilafonté is the first South African and American joint winemaking venture focused only on the production of the ultimate quality wines. Vilafonté is owned and managed by Zelma Long the winemaking partner, Dr. Phil Freese the winegrowing partner and Mike Ratcliffe, the managing Partner.

More about Vilafonté: http://www.vilafonte.com/
Contact: mike@vilafonte.com
Picture of the partners: Click Here
Hi res 300dpi image gallery: Click Here

The Wine Spectator California Wine Experience 2008

Vilafonte was very proud to be selected as one of the standard bearers of South African wine in he United States when it was selected to be poured at the California Wine Experience. The event, attended by passionate wine consumers from across the country is perhaps the most high profile wine event in America and we are justifiably chuffed. Reports coming in suggest that the Wine Experience was hugely succesful and that the wines were throughly appreciated. Vilafonte has had an excellent track record of scores with the Wine Spectator and a long-term relationship that is always appreciated.

Mike was a judge at the Indian Wine Challenge in London