Sip a glass of Chateau Cliff
QUESTION I recently drank a bottle of Ernie Els’s ‘Big Easy’ Shiraz (not bad). Which other celebrities make wine?
FOUR-TIME major golf championship winner Ernie Els owns a vineyard in Stellenbosch, a terrific wine-growing area in South Africa’s Western Cape province. Els’s wines, established in 1999, are made to his taste by head winemaker and managing director Louis Strydom.
Two-time major winner Retief Goosen owns a stunning vineyard in UpperLangkloof valley, behind the Outeniqua Mountains on the picturesque Garden Route of South Africa. His vineyard is called Ganzekraal, meaning Goose Closure or Goose Enclave. He makes Goose Wines in partnership with head winemaker Dr Werner Roux.
David Frost is a South African golfer with ten PGA Tour victories. A serious winemaker, he owns a 300-acre vineyard in the Paarl wine region and makes his own wines including his signature shiraz, pinotage and sauvignon blanc.
Australian two-time Open winner Greg Norman is global CEO of the Great White Shark Corporation, with a portfolio of companies in numerous fields including clothing, interior design, real estate, private equity and golf course design.
The company owns a share of vineyards in Australia, California, Argentina and New Zealand. Distribution of Greg Norman Estates wines is made in partnership with Australia’s largest wine company, Foster’s. The wines are made by head winemaker Andrew Hales, but Norman determines the style of each bottling.
Several other golfers including Nick Faldo, Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer have endorsed wines based on their tasting preferences but do not actually own or make them. J. Marsh, Exeter FRENCH actor Gerard Depardieu, who once claimed to down 12 bottles of wine a day, has vineyards in France, Algeria, Morocco, Spain, the U.S. and Sicily.
Musician Mick Hucknall has a vineyard in Sicily called Il Cantante (The Singer) but, sadly, hasn’t named one of his wines Simply Red. Comedian Graham Norton has one in New Zealand, as does native New Zealander, actor Sam Neill.
Other musicians who run wineries are Boz Scaggs, Mick Fleetwood, Madonna and Sting in Tuscany. Sir Cliff Richard has run one for 15 years in the Algarve, Portugal. It’s recently been put up for sale at £2.5million; his estate is called Adega do Cantor, which translates to Winery of the Singer.
Other actors who own wineries are Kyle MacLachlan, Emilio Estevez, Drew Barrymore and Dan Aykroyd in his native Canada. Fellow Canadian actor Raymond Burr, although now long gone, still has his name on bottles from the estate he ran with his partner who still owns it. Olivia Newton-John runs one in her native South Australia.
Film producer/director Francis Ford Coppola used his vinery for the memorable scene in The Godfather where Marlon Brando’s character dies of a heart attack after being chased by his grandson with a toy gun.
One of the earliest celebrities to own a vineyard was American actor Fess Parker (1924-2010) who famously portrayed Davy Crockett in the Fifties film and cowboy Daniel Boone on TV. It’s still producing wines bearing his name.
Danny Darcy, Reading, Berks.
QUESTION Why was John Trundell’s early printing of Shakespeare’s Hamlet called the ‘bad quarto’?
ELIZABETHAN stationer and bookseller John Trundell (who died in 1629) was born in Chipping Barnet and was apprenticed for eight years from 1589 to stationer Ralph Hancock. He became a freeman of the Stationers’ Company in 1597.
Trundell’s shop in the Barbican was at the sign of Nobody where he published mainly ballads, newsheets and plays. With Nicholas Ling, he published the first quarto Hamlet in 1603.
Early plays and pamphlets were usually published in quarto form, a book or pamphlet created by folding printed sheets twice to form four leaves or eight pages.
This early quarto was dubbed the ‘bad quarto’ as it appears to have been an early example of literary piracy. A player in Richard Burbage’s company at the Rose Theatre, where Hamlet is believed to have debuted, appears to have transcribed a version of the play as he remembered it from rehearsals and its first performances in 1600.
An unknown actor who played the minor role of Marcellus, one of the king’s guard, is considered to have been the principal source for the text, simply because his lines are so accurate compared with his other recollections — which left a lot to be desired.
Whole scenes were left out of the bootlegged edition, published in 1603. It was 2,200 lines long, markedly shorter than the more reliable ‘good quarto’ which was published the following year, where the text grew to 3,800 lines. Scholars tend to agree that the good quarto was taken from the playwright’s handwritten draft.
Jennifer Foles, Warwick
QUESTION I have a keen interest in American automobiles and want to visit U.S. car museums. Are there any good ones?
FURTHER to the earlier answer, try the Volo Auto Museum at 27582 W. Volo Village Road, Volo, Illinois 60073. This amazing place has everything from Duesenbergs in the foyer to classic cars from movies. It has barns and showrooms filled with antique, vintage and restored American cars, some for sale.
A great day out, but I’d suggest you leave your credit card at home — the urge to buy one of the restored classic cars can be overwhelming!
Julie Rowe, Grimsby, Lincs.
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