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Coastal Vineyards Introduced to South African Wines.

By Rocco "Boss Hog" Loosbrock

I recently sat down with Taylor Kim and enjoyed a bold and fresh cup of coffee with him at a local coffee shop. The purpose of our meeting was to learn about JW Imports. In our conversation about wine and life I learned that his Korean name is Jong-Won, hence the name JW was used when he created an all new South African Wine importing/ Distribution company based in Los Angeles with warehouse distribution in both Southern and Northern California.

Prior to the entering the world of wine, Taylor spent 3 years in the import/export arena of sporting and electronics goods. It was that experience that led him to create his own company with the support of his friends in South Africa, Pierre Falerne and Cobus Joubert. On his first visit to Cape Town, South Africa he visited over 30 different wineries. Among them was the Neethlingshof Wine Estate which opened his eyes to the quality of wines in South Africa.

During this visit Taylor's associate Cobus was working with Capelegends which was a big in for Taylor in being introduced to the top winemakers of South Africa! Taylor learned that he had intimate knowledge of the wineries in South Africa and would be the perfect partner in selecting the very best South African wines to import to the U.S.

Taylor told me that the main reason that South African wines are generally unknown is that over the past decade the United States has basically ignored South Africa because of the politics and their international import/export laws.

Today, with laws being more flexible and politics settled down, South African wines are now the fastest growing category in Canada, UK, Sweden, Switzerland, Scandinavia, the of course the U.S. Domestic and International wine competitions with judges from all corners of the world vote Australia, France and South Africa to be the top 3 most awarded wines of the world. Feel free to count the awards at www.iwsc.net.

I wasn't to up to South African Culture, so Taylor gave me a big and friendly introduction to South Africa. He told me that stars such as Dave Matthews, Charlize Theron, Laura Logan are from there. South Africa is also known for Rubgy and Soccer. They are also known for surfing, food, wine, high education, terroir, the Cape Floral Kingdom and its beautiful animals and species. Taking the best blend of the UK and California could sum this up.

Lastly, I asked Taylor about what every wine drinker should know about South African wines? He told me that the viticulture soils of South Africa dates back hundreds of millions of years which is why so many Europeans settled in 350 years ago for winemaking.

The Indian and Atlantic Ocean surrounds its lands where cool winds and fogs reside and all the special 9,600 indigenous plants found only in South Africa help shape the unique characters of the wines. You will see Dutch, English, Russians, French, Italian, Ukrainian, Indian, Chinese, Korean, and many other ethnic backgrounds. There are 11 different languages, where each person speaks at least 2 or 3 and English is spoken and understood clearly.

To learn more about Taylor and JW Imports, visit http://www.jw-imports.com/

Taylor will be working exclusively with the Coastal Vineyards Wine Club as the wine aficionado who will make the wine selections for the South African Wine Club found at http://www.cvwine.com/southafrican/wineclub.html that will be launched in late November 2008.

Signing off at Pigging out!
Rocco "Boss Hog" Loosbrock

Rocco owns and runs a Bacon of the Month Club called The Bacon Freak Bacon is Meat Candy Club as well as a Wine Club called the Coastal Vineyard Wine Club