The grapes for the winning wine were sourced from the Briers-Louw farm Eenzaamheid in deep uniform shale that holds moisture well and affords the wine a rich, full body, and smooth, ripe finish.

The wine achieved four and a half stars in the John Platter Guide 2003, a gold medal at the International Wine Challenge 2002 in the UK, a gold medal at the Veritas Awards 2002 and at the Michelangelo Wine Awards.

The competition prize of R20 000 is sponsored by Saturn Stainless Industries and Mars Equipment Manufacturing.

THE Village, the stylish townhouse development that is planned for Boschenmeer Golf and Country Estate, was completely sold out off-plan, in less than two weeks from its release to the market on 1 November.

The Village will be located within the Boschenmeer Estate, and will consist of 63 two- or three-bedroom single title townhouses with upmarket finishes.

Each townhouse will be 120 square metres in size, and will include a single garage plus secure parking for a second car.

Construction will commence early in 2003 and is scheduled for completion in the last quarter of the year. Prices ranged between R530 000 and R720 000.

The lock-up-and-go properties will be set in a landscaped environment with private gardens, patios and entertainment areas.

The development will have an intimate village atmosphere with cobbled pathways, water features and protected courtyards, overlooking the Estate driving range to the north, with views of the majestic mountains and the lake to the South.

The Village will be located within 200m from the Estate's Boutique Hotel and Club House, which is currently under construction.

The Club House will feature a health and beauty facility, restaurant, halfway-house snack bar, ladies bar, conference room, banqueting services, swimming pool, four floodlit tennis courts and a games room for children. The estate offers access control and 24-hour patrolled security.

According to Johan Pauw, the developer of Boschenmeer, a great majority of the buyers of the townhouses were already property owners at Boschenmeer.

"It is very encouraging to see that so many of our residents are making second and even third purchases within the Estate. This proves that they have recognised the phenomenal demand for property at Boschenmeer, and the excellent return on investment and escalation that can be achieved at this development."

He continued to say that selected residential stands are still available between R400 000 and R850 000.

Boschenmeer is home of the Paarl Golf Club. It offers superb golfing with its 27-hole David Frost Signature Golf Course, hi-tech golfing academy and driving range, and club house with full facilities.

IT is all systems go for a new dispensation at KWV, after KWV Co-operative members gave an overwhelming majority of 85% for implementation of restructuring of the Group at a special member meeting in Worcester on Tuesday.

The restructuring proposal that was approved at the Annual General Meeting of KVW Group last week will be implemented in January.

This will result in KWV splitting into a company and a co-operative (Wijngaard). These two entities will each fulfil separate roles.

Lourens Jonker, KWV Chairman, hailed the restructuring as a breakthrough for producers and shareholders: "With the right structure we can now, as producers and as a company, tackle the global market in a more focused manner." 

Jonker believes that for the South African wine industry to be a formidable global player, a continued focus on quality and competitiveness is required.

Jonker will also step down as chairman and board member of the producer co-operative and will in future only be involved with the company, KWV Limited. 

Danie de Wet, vice chairman of KWV, thanked Jonker for his contribution to the industry over the past twenty years: "KWV transformed under Lourens Jonker's leadership and successfully embraced the South African realities and free market competition."

Both Jonker and De Wet are confident that restructuring is the right decision for securing the future for the South African wine industry, the wine producers and the shareholders. 

The board believes that the decision serves the best interests of all parties.

"A lively debate and numerous meetings demonstrated the seriousness with which we viewed the restructuring. Hence, we are satisfied that we have an unequivocal mandate for the restructuring," said Lourens Jonker.

KWV announced the proposed restructuring in June and has since, in efforts to finalise the proposal, consulted widely with shareholders and members.

"The KWV ship is now in a better position than ever before to navigate the stormy waters of international competition."

In terms of the restructuring proposal, members of the KWV Co-operative convert 1,6 billion voting shares, which have no investment value, into 10% of the issued share capital of KWV Limited.

This interest will be held by Wijngaard Co-operative, which will thus acquire a 10% interest in KWV Limited. KWV Limited will then become a company focusing only on the commercial market.

It also means that KWV Limited shareholders, who currently own the 390 million shares with investment value, will obtain full control over KWV Limited.

The effect of these steps is that the A-shareholders benefit by the lesser dilution of the shareholding, but that young and future farmers will still have an interest in KWV through Wijngaard Co-operative.

KWV Limited will buy services to the value of R8 million a year from Wijngaard for a guaranteed period of five years.

Wijngaard represents the entire producer group at the newly established SA Wine & Brandy Company (SAWBC) and will provide services to the industry not provided by SAWBC.

* KWV reported positive financial results last week and expects even better results next year, with an increase in the demand for brandy, wine spirits and grape concentrate.

Sales of trademark wines increased by 20% and KWV plans to diversify sales to concentrate on the USA instead of Britain

Last week's meeting also elected a new board of directors for the company, including eight members of the current board.

The members are farmers Johan Carinus, Danie de Wet, Chris du Toit, Willie Hewett, Pieter Hugo, Lourens Jonker, Phillip Retief as well as Danie Cronjé (Absa), Franklin Sonn (Africa Group) and Christo Wiese (Pepkor).

AN application for rezoning and subdivision of the property on which an exclusive plastic surgery clinic is proposed on the Franschhoek Pass, has been advertised by the Stellenbosch Municipality.

According to the developers of the proposed L'Aubade Mountain Retreat in Franschhoek, the 16-bed plastic surgery clinic and 50-room convalescence section will be geared primarily to the foreign market, offering cosmetic surgery and recuperation services in a single facility.

The proposed development will represent a direct investment of R190 million into the local and regional economy. 

The site that has been identified and purchased by the developers is over 30 hectares in size on the lower slopes of the Middagkrans Mountain on the Franschhoek Pass.

Of the total site, approximately 3 hectares will be used for the development of the plastic surgery clinic and convalescence section, together with its related service and amenity areas and infrastructure.

A further 1 ha contains existing buildings such as the bottling plant, stables complex, staff housing, visitor's cottages and related infrastructure.

In addition, approximately 2 hectares will be turned into landscaped gardens, using existing vegetation and dams as structuring elements. 

Chittenden Nicks de Villiers (CNdV) was appointed by the developers to manage an integrated environmental planning and management process incorporating EIA and LUPO authorisations. 

The benefit of integrating the environmental planning and design process with the environmental assessment process is that potential impacts can be addressed early on in the process and the design proposal is able to respond and adapt to the concerns highlighted. 

The developers purchased the site for its spacious setting and dramatic view, tranquillity and privacy despite proximity to town centre.

The mineral water content and water bottling plant was an added benefit as it can be used in the hydration of patients and provides an additional income.

"The buildings of the Mountain Retreat aim to sensitively and discreetly 'nestle' into the site to be hidden as far as possible in a forest setting," say the developers.

"Although the building is stepped to follow the slope, it at no point exceeds 8m or two storeys. 

"The proposed development provides an opportunity to gain substantial socio-economic benefit from a development that will attract discerning 'quality' visitors whose spending per capita is high and broaden the tourism offer the Valley."

Written comments and/or objections must reach the Stellenbosch Municipal Manager by 6 December.

For enquiries contact Angelica van der Merwe at the Municipality (808-8255).

PREVIOUS decisions by the Drakenstein Town Council to move hawkers out of Paarl's Lady Grey Street have come to naught.

"We need to regulate, but this is a sensitive matter which should be handled carefully," said deputy mayor Anthea Sheldon (ANC) at a recent meeting of the executive committee.

After several meetings over the past two weeks it was decided last week to start another round of negotiations on the regulation of informal traders in central Paarl. A facilitator will also be appointed to help the process along.

The main problem with the informal traders in Paarl is the overcrowding of Lady Grey Street and the resulting complaints from formal business and the public.

The process started about eight years ago and last year the Council, with the DA in control, decreed that the hawkers should move to Patriot Square and other sites.

Earlier this month the committees of the town council considered an agenda point for the final regulation of the hawkers.

On the table were also concept rules and conditions for hawkers, a concept identification card/permit, as well as a request from the Paarl Informal Traders Association (PITA) for interim measures during the holiday season.

Monday last week a meeting was held with formal and informal business to finalise dates.

Initially everyone seemed in agreement that informal traders will move to the demarcated areas in January.

At the end of the meeting however, the informal traders indicated that they did not accept the process followed to date and were not inclined to move their businesses at all.

Their view was supported by the RDP, with Anthea Sheldon agreeing that due process had not been followed.

A second meeting was scheduled for Wednesday last week, with time running out to finalise any regulation of hawkers before the holiday season.

At this meeting, Frik Coetzee of the Paarlse Sakekamer said that as far as the business sector was concerned, the process had been finalised and all that remained was to set a date for the removals.

Yusuf Patel of the RDP again stated his concern that the RDP had not been involved in negotiations: "To our knowledge, it was driven by a political and not a developmental agenda."

He agreed that regulation was necessary, but with the involvement of the RDP and IDP.

According to the informal traders (PITA) they had never agreed to the plans and wished to go back to the negotiation table.

Further discussion revealed that several plans handed in by the informal traders had never been officially submitted to council, possibly because the matter had been handled by different committees at different staes.

The spokesperson for PITA, Ridwaan Khan, said the gap between formal and informal traders was not as wide as it appeared.

"We are serious about stricter control measures as you will see in Lady Grey Street this month.

"In short, the measures will enable the local authority to control the number of traders and ensure a standard conducive to a friendly shopping experience for the residents of Drakenstein."

In the mean time all informal traders have to apply for a temporary permit by the end of last week.

A SKILLS audit of Xhosa-speaking residents of Franschhoek has been completed in order to determine the available skills and training needs for construction projects planned in the town by the Franschhoek Development Company (Frandevco).

The audit will now be extended to Afrikaans speaking residents of the town, according to consultant Wilfred Moses.

The report gives a glimpse of the economic dynamics of the disadvantaged community and shows that more than 50% of adult Xhosa-speakers are jobless, even in the harvest season.

Training was especially needed in business and management skills or skills which would allow participation in future construction and development projects.

The greatest needs were accommodation, finance and equipment for the ventures of budding entrepreneurs who might become involved in the commercial section of the commonage development.

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