Stormhoek

A labour of love

I started following the Stormhoek blog in late 2005. I was intrigued and fascinated by the story. Stormhoek started the blog because they did not have money to run a regular advertising campaign and they believed that word of mouth above all else was the way to promote their wine. When I first started following the blog, there were only a few months of posts and I read them all. In March 2006 I tried to find out from Graham Knox (wine maker and director) where I could buy the wine. He explained that they were still trying to establish a distribution network in South Africa. Finally in June 2006, I met with Graham and offered my services as I could no longer wait to get the wine in a retail store.

Wine as a product is a labour of love. You – as wine maker – do what you can to prepare the land, but ultimately you are at the mercy of nature itself. Bugs, disease and weather can destroy your crop. Stormhoek wine is no exception. The wines are made for everyone. Stormhoek has found a home in the heart of IT and wine geeks and almost everyone else too. It could be the fact that the blog has started an important conversation about wine, the state of the wine industry, the honesty and the association with some of the most prominent bloggers in the world. But without a great product to back it, this would not have lasted. In 3 years Stormhoek has doubled sales year on year. The love is self evident in the commitment of all involved. The geek dinners, started by Hugh McLeod in 2005, have resulted in marketing and IT people getting together regularly in cities all over the world over a glass of Stormhoek to converse about everything under the sun. These communities have blossomed. There are the accolades, but most of all there is the love. Wine is a social lubricant. It gets people talking. And Stormhoek is in this business. Boots and all.

Shane, South Africa - 15 October 2007