Wines Of South Africa Returns To Nigeria

It was a special evening of fun and high level networking at the weekend, as Wines of South Africa ( WOSA) returned to Nigeria ahead of its West Africa tour.

Held at the Ebony Place, Victoria Island, Lagos, the  event, organised to further create awareness for wines produced in South Africa was aimed at promoting already existing collaboration between South Africa and Nigeria.

During his welcome address, Marketing Manager, Africa, Wines of South Africa, Matome Mbatha, expressed pleasure at the opportunity to be back in Nigeria for business, after the break caused by COVID-19.

According to him  “It’s been over two years now since we have last been in Lagos, to do what we do, which is the presentation of fine wines. And now that Covid has subsided, we are planning to come in full force”, he said.

An optimistic Mbatha said the evening’s ceremony was to raise awareness ahead of the July, 2022 WOSA Wine Tasting event in Lagos and  hinted that his organisation will leverage on the robust relationship it enjoys with industry stakeholders to host a successful event this year.

 “The purpose of this event this time around, is to do a relaunch, working with the media, trade to reassure you that we are coming back as we normally do around the Nelson Mandela Day celebration, which forms part of the West Africa tour starting here in Lagos, Nigeria and then moving to Accra, Ghana.”

In the same vein, the South African Consulate General, H.E Darkey Africa wants Nigerian businesses and their South African counterparts to tolerate each other and continue to play leading roles on the continent.

“As we go around tasting wine, remember you will be taking a journey from one set of bottles to another sets of bottles and I want you to construe this as some kind of wine tourism that wines of South Africa will now start to introduce wine tourism, which essentially means that people can visit the wineries and if there is big wine event in South Africa,it would do you good to go and see where this beautiful wines come from and you will be able to appreciate the value, expertise and of course the best that you can have”, he said.

Some of the wine enthusiasts at thanked the orgainsers for resuming business in Nigeria and told us that they were looking forward to the July Tour. They confessed that the thoroughly enjoyed the evening packaged by Jon Williams Limited.

 John Onyeguzo, whose company has franchise to some South African brands said the organisers must maintain the excellence they are known for.

According to him “I have been part of the wine of South Africa for over a decade.It is always well organized. You can taste loads of wine across brands. It is quite great to interact with other people who have interest in wine. It is very exciting for me as it offers economic and health benefits.”