There you are, sitting with your bottle of South African red or white wine in grey, cold, rainy Germany and your mind wanders off to the dreamland of South Africa with its bright blue sky, the cheerful faces of the people and you can literally feel the warm sun on your back. As you top up the wine, you gaze dreamily at the label on the bottle, smell the wonderful bouquet and suddenly ask yourself how this bottle actually made its long journey to your dining table. Of course you ordered it from KAPVINUM, but it had to get there first!
You've probably heard of ocean liners - or ocean liners - before, but a VineLiner? A ship full of wine? That's almost right: it's a very special packaging solution for wine. What could be worse for a wine connoisseur and lover than the disappointment he feels when, after great anticipation of a fine drop, a so-called cork taint, or off-flavour, is noticeable. Unfortunately, the answer here is not to only buy bottles with plastic corks or screw caps. The musty odour is due to impurities, haloanisoles and halophenols from the TCP family, which can also be caused by incorrect storage during transport. This concludes our little excursion into the chemistry of wine and leaves us wondering how we can put an end to these nasty TCP companions.
The answer, of course, also comes from South Africa, from where exclusive and exquisite wines are shipped all over the world. More precisely, from Stellenbosch in the Western Cape of South Africa. JF Hillebrand SA is part of the JF Hillebrand Group, founded in 1844, which has made a name for itself as a wine specialist among logistics companies and caused a sensation with its innovation of integral insulating linings for transport crates. The JF Hillebrand Group, headquartered in Mainz, Germany, is an international logistics company specialising in beer, wine and distilled spirits. JF Hillebrand offers air freight, inland transport, warehousing, insurance and inventory management. JF Hillebrand SA is the largest single freight forwarder for the wine industry in South Africa and is involved in approximately 52% of all wine exports.
The patented Hillebrand insulation lining effectively protects corks, wine boxes, cartons and barriques from contamination by keeping humidity levels low. This means that the aforementioned baddies don't stand a chance. Incidentally, the film is also completely biodegradable and thus contributes to sustainability and the protection of our planet, at the southernmost end of which we find our favourite country, South Africa.
So that brings us back to our passion for the country and its people - and of course South African wines. And the nice thing is that we can now open and enjoy the next bottle of wine from South Africa with complete peace of mind - with this in mind, cheers from the bottom of our hearts until our next trip to the Cape of Good Hope.