MASTERCHEF SA SERIES SHOT AT FAMOUS NEDERBURG WINERY
MasterChef South Africa is promising one of the most beautiful settings for its debut series, beginning on M-Net on Tuesday, 20 March, with the high-profile Nederburg winery the star venue of the reality cooking show.
“This could well be the loveliest venue ever chosen for a MasterChef series anywhere in the world,” says Anne Davis, M-Net’s senior commissioning editor of the series. “We wanted to shoot in the Winelands because Cape vineyards are immediately recognisable to local and international viewers as distinctly South African. The Western Cape is also the culinary capital of South Africa and has great access to fresh produce. We obviously also wanted good weather and the Cape summer offers a very favourable climate. Nederburg was able to provide everything we were looking for.”
The Paarl winery, set against the dramatic Drakenstein Mountains, has revamped its world-renowned Johann Graue Auction Hall, the annual venue for its famous Nederburg Auction, equipping it as the kitchen for the show that will be broadcast weekly over 18 weeks.
The 1 000 m² venue will be where most of the show’s action will take place but it is also close enough to any off-site challenges in which the contestants will be involved, according to the organisers.
Davis says the overhaul of the Nederburg auction hall has been an extensive process. There are over 20 cooking stations equipped with state-of-the-art appliances and utensils. To create the floor and the walls, over 15 tonnes of wood was sourced locally, while 5 kilometers of under floor cabling have been used and the garden around the area has been beautifully landscaped. The final result is really impressive!”
When the MasterChef SA team approached Nederburg to consider making the winery facilities available for the series, the winery was ready to oblige. “Nederburg is surrounded by gorgeous gardens, vineyards and sweeping views of the mountains. The historic and contemporary buildings create an exciting blend of classical and modern, and altogether this is a very appealing and attractive location,” says Suné van der Merwe, Distell’s category manager for wines in South Africa and whose portfolio includes Nederburg. “We are very proud of its starring role.”
Nederburg, established in 1791, is South Africa’s most awarded winery and the official wine sponsor of MasterChef South Africa. Its prize to South Africa’s first MasterChef will include a customised sommelier course, one-on-one master classes in wine presented by Nederburg’s internationally acclaimed cellar master Razvan Macici, and a year’s supply of Nederburg Winemaster’s Reserve Wines.
In 2011 Nederburg was chosen as the Platter’s South African Wine Guide Winery of the Year for having the highest number of five-star wines. This year, it shares the honours with two other wineries.
One of South Africa’s best-selling brands, Nederburg is available across the world. In 2010, the winery made and marketed a range of South African wines for the 2010 FIFA World Cup ™ in South Africa.
Davis said the MasterChef set would be closed to the public until production of the series was concluded in March.
DATE FEBRUARY 6, 2012
ISSUED BY DKC (DE KOCK COMMUNICATIONS)
FOR NEDERBURG WINES
QUERIES SUNÉ VAN DER MERWE, DISTELL CATEGORY MANAGER: WINES (021) 809 7000 0R 072 224 2888
WENCKE GROBLER, NEDERBURG SA BRAND MANAGER (021) 809 7000 or 078 3143439
INGRID ENGELBRECHT, MASTERCHEF SA (011) 686 6020 or 083 651 9742
TESSA DE KOCK/MARLISE POTGIETER, DKC (021) 422 2690
Kind regards,
Sonja Bezuidenhout
DE KOCK COMMUNICATIONS
1st floor, Rozenhof Office Court
20 Kloof Street, Gardens
8001
Tel: (021) 422 2690 - Fax: (021) 422 2558 - Cell: 083 700 3078
