At The Rosebank, in the heart of affluent Johannesburg, renowned South African wine guru, Clive Torr, is creating the City of Gold’s most perfect wine destination, a place to relax with great wine while entertaining in the lounge, enjoying sundowners by the Circle Bar or dining in the hotel’s two restaurants, Butcher Block and Fresh.

Merging the latest local and international trends, guests should prepare to indulge their senses as Torr takes them on a journey of taste and smell with a myriad of textures and bouquets. Recently engaged by The Rosebank to put together the wine list and train the Food and Beverage (F&B) staff on the art of wine, Torr wants to transform the hotel into a wine connoisseur’s haven.

"At The Rosebank we want our guests to enjoy wines that have energy and are alive with flavour, not dead with chemicals. We are carefully selecting our wines so that they can enhance our meals or be simply enjoyed alone. We want our staff to be able to advise guests knowledgeably about which wine goes with what meals.”

A qualified winemaker and the youngest Cape Wine Master, Torr said he planned to compile a wine list with 150 wines comprised of 90% local wines and 10% of some of the world’s best imported wines. He said his major aim was to have The Rosebank’s wine menu on the Diners Club Wine Lists of the year. The Diners Club Wine List Awards, held in high esteem by both the restaurant and wine industry annually, are aimed at encouraging food and wine-serving establishments to consistently improve the standards of wine lists on offer. With more than 25 years in wine making, a wine farm in France as well as co-owning Topaz Wines in South Africa, Torr wants to ensure that The Rosebank’s entire F&B staff becomes wine ambassadors. Previously principal of the Cape Wine Academy where he inspired and recruited more than 6000 wine lovers to study wine, he hopes to enthuse the same passion into The Rosebank F & B staff. "Having traveled around the world marketing wines, it’s important to note that wine does not sell itself. Our intention is to make sure our staff become wine experts and promote the amazing wines in South Africa which we need to showcase," Torr said. Apart from an extensive wine list, Torr said the hotel wanted guests to be able to order any wine by the glass, without necessarily paying for the whole bottle. This would be possible by making use of Le Verre de Vin (The Glass of Wine), a "Wine Preservation System" purchased from Imvusa Technologies. The machine quickly and easily removes oxygen from open bottles of wine to a precisely controlled level, effectively preserving the subtle structure of the best wines for up to 21 days. In the case of sparkling wine or champagne, a buffer of carbon dioxide gas is inserted into the head space above the liquid preventing any loss of the natural sparkle in the wine. "Wine is an art which anyone can master with adequate training and enough passion;" concluded Torr who initially enrolled for Agriculture before studying oenology at Elsenberg College in Stellenbosch.

The Rosebank is set to reopen in August after a R254 million refurbishment.

For more information contact:
The Rosebank
Marije Meerstadt
0861 174 7444
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Headlines
Lindi Tshabangu
011 887 3422
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