28 October 2007

South Africa's Greatest Pinotage?

This advert for Beyerskloof Pinotage apeared in the UK national newspaper The Guardian yesterday.

I cannot ever remember seeing a Pinotage being advertised this way before. But the advert wording raises a number of interesting questions:

-- If this is the greatest Pinotage, where does that leave Beyerskloof's black labelled barrel-aged Reserve bottling? (although to be fair that is not available in the UK)
-- The bottle pictured is the 2006 vintage with a screw-cap. The screwcapped bottles are available only in Tesco's; other supermarkets and high street chains have cork closures. So where does that leave the 'Beyers Truter' branded Pinotage stocked by Tesco at £2 more a bottle ?
-- Just South Africa, Beyers? Not the worlds greatest????

"You tell us" the advert invites, pointing to a revamped Beyerskloof website homepage.

You can vote

YES without question

NO, definitely not

or click on TELL ME MORE

But I don't think the voting buttons work or that there is any coding behind them because nothing happens. There is nothing to stop you clicking multiple times, no scores are shown, and if you click on 'Tell me More', you are shown the following blank page:-




    Maybe it is deliberate and they're trying to suggest that "there's no more to say", but the Beyerskloof website has a long, sorry history of links not working and pages missing: it is a mystery why this major winery still can't get the basics of its web-site right.

    **UPDATE** As of close of business 30 October the buttons all now work, and voting is 77% that Beyerskloof Pinotage is SA's greatest.**

    Beyers told me some months ago that he intended blogging on the site, and now you can click on a 'Talk to Us' button to send your comments to 'Beyers Blogosphere' on a blog there. As of Sunday morning, the only entries are promotional puffs from someone calling themselves 'RedLeaf' .

    So pile in and take part...

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