Category: Uncategorized

We’ve been known to evangelize from time to time on the fantastic availability of inspiration along the entire spectrum of art forms and media.  This month, our inspiration is coming from the performing arts segment of the spectrum in the form of some swingingly syncopated song and dance.  We are speaking, of course, of jazz. … Continue reading Shades of Blue

Last month we paid tribute to the Victorians the only way we at Shades of Grape know how: with prudent amounts of wine, gloriously inspirational artwork in all its forms, and a little Romance.  This is a quick look back at our Very Victorian Valentine’s Day wine painting dinner and our magnificent dinner guests who… Continue reading Salute to a Bygone Era

It’s February—month two of the new year—and we are ready to start walking the walk on some of those things we wrote about in our last post, starting with this month’s workshop theme. We can sense your eye-rolls and sighs at the thought of more commercialized holiday business.  Didn’t we just finish with this? you… Continue reading A Very Victorian Valentine’s Day, Indeed

As we sit nearly one month into the new year, wondering what it will bring for all of us as both ordinary people and creators of sorts, we at Shades of Grape are taking a moment to look back at the year passed and how it is colored our view of our future prospects. We… Continue reading Shades of the New Year

Change has been in the air for a few weeks now.  Muggies have been nagging, noses running, eyes watering, and that can only mean one thing: spring is really here.  The promise of spring does not sound quite so romantic when you put it that way, but we are not fooled in Franschhoek—we will gladly… Continue reading Shades of Spring

What a thrill to debut Shades of Grape right as the wine farms of Franschhoek were collectively uncorking themselves for wine lovers from far and wide on 24 September.  It was the perfect spring Saturday to spend with friends around a table in the sunlit veranda of Village Grill and Butcher, sipping a few of… Continue reading Shades of September