For the reward given – cooking steak is probably one of the best things you can do to entertain guests. It’s so easy and there’s really no better accompaniment for steak than red wine.

I like to buy a whole Angus fillet and cook it first before cutting it into fillet steaks, this way you can keep the juices and really preserve a lot of the flavour. It also presents a perfect opportunity to do what any male wine millennial, or any male for that matter - likes most… marinade. Like making hot-sauce, there is perhaps no time more satisfying to a person than when he given the chances to marinade something. There’s a certain feeling of alchemy in preparing the meat that really doesn’t come with other pre-preparation chores like peeling potatoes or rolling pastry flat.

The ingredients for getting a steak ready are quite simple: rock salt, English mustard, lemons, pepper, red wine, olive oil, chopped garlic and mixed spices. Adding lemon juice helps seal the steak and within minutes the pinkish colour will disappear and the fillet will start to gain a more cooked sort of colour. At this point I roll the fillet in a bed of rock-salt before smothering it in a healthy dose of English mustard mixed with spice and crushed garlic. Once done, leave it to soak in a pool of red wine on top of a bed of diced onions allowing the blood and fermented juice to comingle.

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When one looks at a vineyard – you’re not looking at it in the same way as you would look at an orange orchard. Instead one sees a multitude of experiences past and of moments yet to come - moments of intimacy, memorable occasions, conversations and treasured friendships. Since time immemorial, vineyards have not only been the touchstone of certain regions, but have often been the lifeblood of local communities and the cornerstone of entire generations of families. Every vineyard contains a family, a history, a culture and a purpose. This was at least, the sentiment I had before embarking on a mission to New York City, where I would promote and sell wine’s connected to my family in some ways, and more importantly – wine from my country. During that time – having spent much time in preparation for the mission, I left with those stories and sentiments of culture and family fresh in my blood. But with every sales-call and wine event I began to feel further and further from the vineyard. Soon it was about laid in cost, case-discounts and what kind of Point of Sale material was on offer. I travelled the country in a rental car with a case of wine, a corskrew and a power-point presentation along the way having people from Westchester Wine Warehouse cruelly spit wine on my shoe after having left me waiting for an hour, sitting in cold-rooms of cellars in Maryland, helping do stock-takes in Ohio, presenting to Wholefoods buyers in North Carolina and pushing on-premise retail in Atlanta: and with every step I became a bit more confused and lost the focus of what I was doing. Having believed that wine was so important to my country and stepping into the States to tell the story of South African wine, it was very dispiriting to suddenly be faced with the fact that no one really cared so long as they could make a profit.

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The first leg of the Commerce Bank triple crown of cycling (Lehigh Valley Classic) was today in Allentown, Pa so I took the afternoon off to go check it out. I had never been to a cycling race before and wasn’t expecting much, but it was surprisingly entertaining. Some of the best cyclists in the world were there, many of which cycle the Tour de France. It is a very social type of event because you only see them come by every 15-20 minutes or so (10 eight mile laps through the city), and then chat it up with your friends and family while waiting for the next pass. It was great to watch the cyclists push it out, their fitness was amazing. Very enjoyable event, and when it came down to the wire, the crowd started going nuts and the commentators were going absolutely bonkers.

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I’ve had an unbelievable two weeks with much good food, hundreds of 1 ounce wine pours, great restaurants, changing cities, cool people and a lot of business. We’ve just touched down in Atlanta and are reflecting on an amazing two weeks and the culmination of it all undoubtedly being Wine 2.0 at Club Sportiva last night.

Left to Right: Ben (CalWineries.com); Gary V., G-Man (*www.thetastevine.com) and me

Stepping out of the virtual world and into the reality of Wine 2.0 was pretty neat, especially to be in the same room with Gary V., Inertia’s Andrea, Tom Wark, Wine Hiker Russ, Alder Yarrow and everyone else playing in this circle.

G-man and myself were the youngest guys by 5 and 3 years respectively - and that’s not to say that it was an older crowd. If anything, having come from the traditional route of working in on-premise and off-premise sales, everyone in the room was a baby compared to the aging 3-tier crowd. It is inspirational to be in a game that is dominated by young players.

To listen to the panel last night, it is a relief to hear people who not only understand how to, but have begun to take wine from a prohibitionist era mindset into the 21st Century (where everyone else is.) Gary is leading the charge, Inertia is laying the tracks and Tom Wark has spread the message. The stadium is built and the people will come.

Grape Thinking, TasteVine and people like the dudes at CalWineries are fortunate to be able to start down the path that has been cleared for us. Whilst Bottlenotes, RadCru, Wine Q and Cork’d are doing a good job giving an online platform to the established wine appreciation crew - Grape Thinking and Taste Vine are working to bring our love for food and wine into the same mix as our understanding of the digital era.

It was great to share the same vision with those who have begun to make it happen. There’s space for all of us to be successful - and with so much opposition at every step, we’re going to need all the force we can muster. Having had a great 2 weeks I’d like to take the chance to propose a digital toast to all the young self-starters in the room last night: the future is ours.