JibJab

I love watching Jay Leno and recently saw this "2007 year in review" cartoon from the fab and talented people at JibJab.

JibJab was essentially started in 1999 by two brothers called Gregg and Evan Spiridellis. The idea was to create viral online video's and shorts and although the company had its ups and downs it has continued to be a hit and they even have a blog (http://blog.jibjab.com/).

www.jibjab.com is a great site and allows you to watch some hilarious video footage from the JibJab team and also from user generated content. Topics range from politics to knock knock jokes and if you like you can buy and post ecards to send to friends (they even give you free credit when you join), either way its well worth a visit, I have never seen such a good comedy site online.

Have a fabulous 2008,

Cheers,

Chris

Captain Morgan Ad

An old one but classic, wish my local was that understanding !

Funny guy Tom Deacon

Just found this gem of a comedian, his name is Tom Deacon and he recently managed to win the Revels student stand up comedy awards bagging himself £2,500 cash.

Basically for the awards they visited 12 universities across the UK, found the best funny students and then hosted the finals live at the legendary Edinburgh Fringe.

Haven't been able to find out much info about him and can only find the above video of his funny stuff at present, but if its anything to go by I'm sure the chap will do well.

Cheers

Spot the Englishman

Just found this picture taken on the big game night. Myself and my good friend Dave were very kindly invited to a proper SA style Briaa by another good friend Brett at his sisters stunning home.
As the only Englishman present its needless to say I was vastly outnumbered by about 30 to 1 but I must say I was expecting a lot of slack and instead found only kind words (OK there were a few witty comments made).

Anyway under 4 years to go now, so not too long till we can take it back again :)

Big thanks to Brett, his sister and family and all present, what a fab evening.

Not without a fight: Part 2

Firstly congrats to the SA rugby team, great effort and well deserved, secondly gutted about the Grand Prix, seems its just been a weekend that wasn't meant to be for England sport, but sure we will bounce back with style as ever.

Just had to post this song, its a dedication, you know who you are, and just remember the legend Bobs Marleys wise words "Don't worry about a thing, cause every little thing gonna be all right".

Big Love x

Not without a fight

As an avid England supporter I just had to put this picture up to show the boys some support.
The above is part of the Nike England rugby ad campaign and also comes with a nice cheesy video (click here). Anyway needless to say as an Englishman living in South Africa I'm trying to pick a very English or friendly place to watch the big game, Ideally with the girlfriend I reckon then either way I cant get hurt :)
Till next time, "God save the Queen"

Inappropriate news headline ?

While driving home this evening I saw this rather eye catching news headline. Now is it just me or could this be taken the wrong way if you know what I mean.
Needless to say I was creasing myself for the remainder of my journey.

Wet and Wild

Recently I must admit to being slack at posting, however like most people out there Facebook has kept me busy seeing who is dating who and reading ever intimate details about everyone I have ever met even just for a second.

However not all is lost as on our Stormhoek Facebook group I received a message from a fab lady that works for SANCCOB (Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds) asking if we could sponsor some wine for a charity auction and help raise awareness for their cause. Yes was the obvious answer as I am an avid fan of the local Jackass penguins, and no they have nothing to do with the crazy American TV show.

SANCCOB was officially started in 1967 by Althea Westphal and the charities main aim is to conserve and protect the local Jackass penguin population as well as South Africa's many other sea birds. They have so far helped to treat more than 83 000 sick, injured, orphaned and oiled sea birds throughout the last 4 decades.

The above picture is SANNCOB's most recent advert designed to help raise awareness for the cause, and features famous SA model Kerry McGregor and a few equally sexy (although maybe not so good smelling) penguins. Over the next year the ad will be altered to feature a ton of other famous SA models and celebs volunteering their time to help the little fellas out.

At present the current population of SA penguins is about 10% of what it was at the turn of the 20th Century and continues to drop by around 2% every year meaning that the Jackass penguins are listed as vulnerable to extinction by the world wildlife governing bodies.

Without help it is likely there will be no more African penguins left in the wild within the near future so please visit SANNCOB's website and either make a donation or even better adopt your very own penguin (you will even get a goody bag and proper certificate of adoption) .

To adopt a penguin please go to http://www.sanccob.co.za/ or click here, it only cost R500 (approx £35, or $70) and you can sleep well knowing that you have helped save the threatened life of a cute fluffy penguin.

Smirnoff purified ad

I love looking at ads online and picked up this recent beauty done by JWT London. Made for Smirnoff triple distilled Vodka (the website is v interactive and a good excuse to not work for a few minutes) it shows the sea spitting out all the garbage on to land, and leaves behind just clear seas, fish and a bottle of the old Tsars favorite drink. Especially love all the old plane wrecks taking to the air once more, it looks awesome.

Stormhoek Couture

Nice promo video for our new concept drink called Couture.
Developed over the last two year from pure Stormhoek Cabernet Sauvignon grapes it’s the first wine to be designed to drink over ice. Currently it’s available in the UK at all Threshers stores and at select bottle stores across South Africa.
Couture also works great as a cocktail mixer and at the moment we are busy sorting out a cocktail list that we will update and publish on our blog at www.stormhoek.com and on our Face Book page at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2388408693
If you find a cocktail that works well with it please send me an email and if you’re in South Africa and the cocktail works, I will send you a bottle for your hard effort (will limit it so if your reading this post and its 2010 unlucky, but enjoy the world cup!)

For more details and to find your nearest stockist please feel free to email me at chris@stormhoek.com

Cheers,

Chris

27 Dinner v6 goes down a Storm(hoek)

Last night saw in another great 27 dinner eve, complete with lots of Stormhoek social lubricant.

For those few that don't already know what the 27 dinners are about, its basically a social gathering of South Africa's greatest entrepreneurial minds, and a chance for them to network, listen to informative speeches, socialise, have a good time and drink Stormhoek etc.(for more info go to the 27 dinner wiki)

Last night as you can see from the pictures above, we had a huge turnout and the kind folks from Charly's bakery even gave us all free tasty cup cakes complete with the names of relevant companies iced on the top of the cakes (see the Stormhoek pic above). Not only that but Wine Magazine handed out copies of the best wine mag in the world (yes I'm biased), Zoopy gave away a sony camcorder and offered up 3 video ipods for people that post the most pics on their site, and Stormhoek let everyone present be amongst the first in the world to try out our pre-release new drink concept called Couture.

Their was an interesting talk done by a new company called Yeigo who have a great new application made for mobile phones that allows you to make cheap calls, chat and send SMSs to anyone, anywhere in the world quickly and easily, and is compatible with GoogleTalk, MSN, Yahoo, skype etc. For more info go to their nice website.

All in all another fab eve and big shout out to Sir Dave Duarte for pulling it off in style yet again. Also big love to the Cape Town Hotel School for hosting the venue. See you at the next one.

Cheers

Stormhoek Inner circle bookclub

A while ago my girlfriend told me she was invited to join a book club, now I as a regular guy I thought this would involve reading a book every month and then commenting on it at a meeting once a month or so.

How I was wrong! I should have realised from the first time Ceri went to one of the meetings and came back home at 3am spelling like a brewery that something was fishy, but alas I had no idea to what was coming.

Recently after meeting some of the book party animals at a club they realised I worked for Stormhoek wines. I was then asked whether the next Inner Circle (the name of the book club) could be held at my house with a Cheese and Wine tasting theme (emphasis on the wine). I agreed and the results were stunning.

The evening kicked off at about 8pm and after most of the people arrived I was asked to kindly leave my own house and then only return later when they wanted me to do the wine tasting! At about 9.30 I was summoned and began the tasting. I took the already tipsy bunch through the core Stormhoek range (Sauv Blanc, Pino Grigio, Pinotage, Shiraz, Assassin and Rose) and explained the basic differences of the wine and how Stormhoek is the best wine farm in the world, the latter they already knew of course! Some interesting discussion was had and I must thank Lara (another Inner Circle member) from Tempel wines who also helped in the educating experience.

After the tasting I was kindly asked to leave again so I cant tell you what went on, however I do remember hearing lots of laughter and girly screams so my guess is as good as yours!

The party, I mean book club finished finally at about 1am (on a Thursday!), predictably all the wine was gone but surprisingly the house was still in one piece.

I have been told that the next Inner circle book club is going to also be themed, this time the theme is "sex book club" !!!!!!! (no comment I'm just glad its not at mine again)

I have provided a picture above of the Inner Circle book club members. From left to right starting at the top is Sam, Lara, Shirley, Ceri, dean then Tash, Krista, Mbali, Tracey and Cindy.

We have been having a few chats to see if we should sponsor some more local book club Stormhoek wine tasting. If your keen or have any ideas please drop me a mail at chris@stormhoek.co.za and will see what we can do.

Cheers

Bud light TV ad

Just had to post this bud light ad, it has to be one of the most hilarious ads I have seen for a very long time. The video comes from the Budweiser beer site www.bud.tv and the site is well worth a look as has a ton of other funny videos and more.

For anyone that hasn't tried bud or bud light yet, its an American pale larger that is made with a small proportion of rice in addition to barley malt and tastes not so great generally if your used to Belgium larger or anything made with quality rather than volume in mind, which is probably why they have to do such great marketing for the brand.

Subliminal Advertising

Just had to post this video on subliminal advertising. This clip is from the Derren Brown show in the UK and shows how advertising can effect our everyday thoughts and actions.
After seeing this I would be afraid to know how many purchases and decisions in my life have been influenced by this type of advertising!

Cheers

Chris

Afrigator free ipod video competition

During my morning catch up of my Google feed reader I came across another great idea from Mike Stopforth & Justin Hartman who are the founders of Afrigator, the African equivalent of Technorati.

For those of you that don't know, Afrigator basically can track and log all your blog posts, podcasts, videocasts etc and show the most popular topics/blogs etc in Africa at any time on the site.

The way the service works is that you sign up for a free account, add a bit of pre made code into your blog (you can see i have a icon for them in the right hand column) and then that's it! simple.

The service then will track all you posts automatically and then log and categorize them. You can go to the site at any time, log in and see how many people have been visiting your site too for free, so all in all its a nifty site to use.

Anyway on to the main topic Afrigator are giving away two Apple video ipods to two randomly chosen people that sign up to use their service, One to the new user and one to the person that told them about the offer. All you need to do to enter is go to http://www.afrigator.com/go/main/join, enter your details and then if you feel nice enter my email address (chrisraw@gmail.com) into the referral box and that's it, we could soon be listening to a shiny new ipod!!

Also if you are in the first 50 bloggers to write about the competition you will receive a limited edition Afrigator T-shirt, Mike please send me a large in black if pos :)

Cheers

Chris

Technology and Evolution

Whilst browsing the latest additions to my Google reader I found this great video above from Steve Claytons blog (Microsoft UK legend). It offers us some interesting facts and predictions on the evolution of the tech world with a very "Lord of the Dace" type soundtrack.

Great stuff and well worth the watch, only thing I think is that it is a bit of a shame that it looks like it could have been put together by a bunch of mountain goats, and considering the video has a cutting edge tech message it would have been nice to see it presented in a befitting manner.

While I have Microsoft on my mind and for those of you that don't already know, our favorite Stormhoek blogger Hugh MacLeod has been asked to do some work for the guys at Microsoft ! To read more (and its a very interesting read) go to Gaping void and see the story and cartoons unfold.

Cheers

Chris

Stormhoek bloggers Love braai

Last night saw in the first Stormhoek Bloggers Braai. The event was held at Stormhoek HQ just outside Wellington. This provided the first chance for a select few of our fab fans to have a look around the vineyard, try some new wines, eat some tasty food, and receive some exclusive gifts to help spread the Stormhoek big love!

Above are just a few quick pics from the Braai, notice the sexy Lady's "High class hoeker" tops!

The evening started off with a guided walk around the farm by Stormhoek's main man Graham Knox. As night was setting in fast, the moon had to provide much of the lighting for the tour and at one stage Gerry (who road tripped from the Garden route) almost got lost from the main crowd while examining some of our vines, luckily he was found after a few loud calls for help.

Next the select few got a chance to taste some of our new wines (no spitting at this tasting, all swallowed!!) and then received a limited edition bottle of Stormhoek Champagne and some very stylish tops for their hard work drinking.

Speeches from the fab Catherine and Alistair from our UK brethren as well as the main man Sir Graham Knox, followed the hand outs, telling us a little more about the Stormhoek phenomenon and our philosophy.

Food followed, and I must say I'm still in shock that they trusted the Braai to me, an Englishman, however I am pleased to tell you that as yet I have had no calls of complaint!

Drinks and chatting carried on well after midnight and it was great to be able to talk to so many fantastic people such as Glen and Bridgitte from the ZA show, Lara , Stephanie, Dave and the night time wanderer Gerry!

Will keep you posted for links and pics from other attendees and I just want to say a big thank you to everyone who made it.

All in all a great night and definitely one I wont forget.

Cheers,

Chris

Big Love Stormhoek wine farm trip

Its official, the time and date for one of this years most exciting South African events has been finalised!!. Yes that's right, the bloggers Stormhoek wine farm trip.
The event will take place on Friday the 23rd of March from 6pm onwards at the Stormhoek wine birthing farm just outside Wellington. We have been making sure this will be a evening you wont forget, The following are just some of the incredible attractions we have in store for you so be sure to bring a camera.

• Exclusive limited edition Stormhoek bottles of Champagne made just for you, complete with one of the fab Hugh McLeod's cartoon labels.
• The first tasting of our new 2007 Pino Grigio, Sauvignon Blanc and rose
• Limited edition Wine farm tour T-shirts (we even have made sexy ones just for the ladies :)
• Gourmet caterer serving food and snacks
• Exclusive Guided tour of the farm from the incredible one and only wine and marketing guru Graham Knox
• Talks from the Stormhoek crew including guest appearances from some of the UK gang
• A roof over your head is guaranteed if you accidentaly happen to consume too much wine !

We have limited the event to 25 people so make sure you book fast by signing up on the Wiki by clicking here, or if your feeling lazy feel free to give me a call on 082 775 4022 or email me at chrisraw@gmail.com and I will add you on the list myself.

Directions have been listed on the Wiki and if you have any problems the number to call will be 021 864 3155 as mobile reception is very limited at the farm. If your coming from Cape Town the journey should take you approx 1 hour, If anyone wants to share a ride I suggest you either use the comments section for this post or just use the Wiki.

Be sure to sign up fast and all of us at Stormhoek look forward to showing you a whale of a good time. Cheers, Chris x

Stormhoek + Top Gear = Space race hope

Top Gear Shuttle Launch Aka. The New Car Bomb. - Click here for the funniest movie of the week

Just had to share this hilarious video with you all. Its taken from the popular UK BBC car programme Top Gear.
In there continuing quest to accomplish crazy stunts with old and knackered cars they have aimed for the sky, quite literally with this one!!.
The plan was to launch a Reliant Robin into the stratosphere and then pilot it back down to earth via remote control, so as to create the worlds first reusable space ship car shuttle, the results were brilliant.
However I could not help thinking back to the Stormhoek mentos experiment and wondering wheather they maybe could have achieved better results using several thousand gallons of our award winning Shiraz and an appropriate quantity of Mentos? this could be South Africa's first and best chance for an independent space programme. Anyone interested in helping get this fantastic idea literally of the ground please send in mentos and Stormhoek will supply the wine :)

Become a real life superhero

If in your heart you have at any time aspired to be batman then this product is for you!!

The above video shows a product called the ATLAS Powered Rope Ascender.

The product has been carefully designed by students from MIT's Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies (only in America :), and is capable of hauling a fully kitted out soldier up an obstacle at up to 10 ft/sec!!!

Other uses include using it to tow vehicles and even remotely move equipment and casualties.

At Stormhoek we are in the process trying to supply wine to the restaurant at the top of Table Mountain so maybe we could use it as a quick way of getting emergency wine stocks up there, I calculated it would take about 1min 40seconds to the top from the cableway, not too bad and much faster than Dave and myself took to walk to the top the other day!!