February 19th – During each day’s 15 minute break Wine Future 2021 will feature live and recorded entertainment coordinated by Dan Nicholl, host of South Africa’s The Dan Nicholl Show and the successful Dan Really Likes Wine series. In 2016, Dan broke the South African auction record for a single bottle of wine, selling the maiden offering of the Touch Warwick cabernet sauvignon for a staggering R1.3-million. Although certainly not an expert, Dan collects and tastes wine extensively, and has a simple philosophy on wine: a good bottle is one that you like, and a bad bottle is one that you don’t. Dan’s Wine Future program will feature interviews, virtual visits to wine regions, wine tourism, live and recorded music, and a range of other cultural performances.
Matthew Goode
Goode is an English actor with a long film career, including such productions as Brideshead Revisited, Watchmen, Leap Year, and The Imitation Game. As well as appearing in films, Goode has appeared in numerous television shows. His most notable television roles include Henry Talbot in the final season of historical drama Downton Abbey, and Finley “Finn” Polmar in the CBS legal drama The Good Wife. In 2017, Goode portrayed Antony Armstrong-Jones, 1st Earl of Snowdon in the Netflix biographical drama series The Crown, for which he received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series. As of 2018, he stars in Sky One’s fantasy-romance series, A Discovery of Witches, as Professor Matthew Clairmont. He is also co-star, along with Matthew Rhys and James Purefoy of The Wine Show, a documentary series on Amazon Prime Video.
Francis Ford Coppola
Coppola is a legendary American film director, producer and screenwriter. He was a central figure in the New Hollywood filmmaking movement of the 1960s and 1970s, and is widely considered to be one of the greatest filmmakers of all time. His accolades include five Academy Awards, six Golden Globe Awards, two Palmes d’Or, and a British Academy Film Award. Film credits include The Godfather trilogy, Apocalypse Now, The Cotton Club, Peggy Sue Got Married, Tucker: The Man and His Dream, and Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Coppola, with his family, expanded his business ventures to include winemaking in California’s Napa Valley, when in 1975 he purchased the former home and adjoining vineyard of Gustave Niebaum in Rutherford, California. After purchasing the property, he produced wine under the Niebaum-Coppola label. When he purchased the former Inglenook Winery chateau in 1995, he renamed the winery Rubicon Estate Winery in 2006. On April 11, 2011, Coppola acquired the Inglenook trademark paying more, he said, for the trademark than he did for the entire estate and announced that the estate would once again be known by its historic original name, Inglenook. Its grapes are now entirely organically grown. The Francis Ford Coppola Winery near Geyserville, California, located on the former Chateau Souverain Winery, where he has opened a family-friendly facility, is influenced by the idea of the Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen, with swimming pools, bocce courts and a restaurant.
Ernie Els
Els is a South African professional golfer. A former World No. 1, he is known as “The Big Easy” due to his imposing physical stature along with his fluid golf swing. Among his 71 career victories are four major championships. He is one of six golfers to twice win both the U.S. Open and The Open Championship.
He was the leading career money winner on the European Tour until overtaken by Lee Westwood in 2011, and was the first member of the tour to earn over €25,000,000 from European Tour events. He has held the number one spot in the Official World Golf Ranking and until 2013 held the record for weeks ranked in the top ten with 788. He was elected to the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2010, on his first time on the ballot, and was inducted in May 2011.
When not playing, Els has a golf course design business, a charitable foundation which supports golf among underprivileged youth in South Africa, and a winemaking business in Stellenbosch, South Africa (Ernie Els Wines).
David Farrell (aka Phoenix)
Farrell is an American musician, best known as a founding member, the bassist and backing vocalist of the rock band Linkin Park.
Linkin Park is among the best-selling bands of the 21st century and the world’s best-selling music artists, having sold over 100 million records worldwide. They have won two Grammy Awards, six American Music Awards, two Billboard Music Awards, four MTV Video Music Awards, 10 MTV Europe Music Awards and three World Music Awards. Billboard ranked Linkin Park No. 19 on the Best Artists of the Decade list. In 2012, the band was voted as the greatest artist of the 2000s in a Bracket Madness poll on VH1. In 2014, the band was declared as “The Biggest Rock Band in the World Right Now” by Kerrang!.
An avid wine lover and collector, he’s always excited to chat about and taste wines with friends.
John Smit, OIS
Smit is a South African former rugby union player and former chief executive officer of the Sharks. He was the 50th captain of the South Africa national team, and led the team to win the 2007 Rugby World Cup. He retired from international rugby following the 2011 Rugby World Cup as the most-capped South African player ever, with 111 appearances.
Smit was inducted into the IRB Hall of Fame on 24 October 2011 (while still active at club level), alongside all other World Cup-winning captains and head coaches from the tournament’s inception in 1987 through 2007.
Tickets for the conference are quite reasonable at 125€ (~ $150) and are available to anyone interested. Discounted/Complimentary tickets are available to qualified contacts. Please feel free to pass along to your readers, contacts, friends, etc.
