This week’s savings to savour – from groceries 🛒 to wine farms 🍇

This week’s newsletter is packed with good news for your wallet and your taste buds. We reveal which supermarket really offers the best value in our October grocery showdown, spotlight stunning wine farms giving pensioners special discounts, and share a few feel-good wine facts to make you smile.

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In this edition:

1. The October 2025 grocery showdown: Who’s actually cheapest right now?

2. Wine farms offering pensioners’ discounts in the Western Cape

3. Enjoy good food, great wine and beautiful views with this week’s hot picks!

4. Good vibes this week: South African wine facts that will make you smile 😉

The October 2025 grocery showdown: Who’s actually cheapest right now?

In the last issue we asked you to guess which supermarket would come out cheapest on a few everyday staples. Everyone guessed Checkers…BUT it turns out it’s not them! Here’s what I found.

Sip, savour, and save – wine farms offering pensioners’ discounts in the Western Cape

We’ve rounded up some of the Western Cape’s top wine farms that offer special discounts for pensioners. From relaxed picnics in Stellenbosch to historic cellars in Robertson, there’s something for every taste (and budget). So pour yourself a glass and start planning your next outing – these deals are worth toasting to!

Enjoy good food, great wine and beautiful views with this week’s hot picks!

Good vibes this week 😊 🍇 South African Wine Trivia

1️⃣ Where in South Africa do ducks 🪿 patrol the vineyards – not as pets, but as pest control?

2️⃣ What South African wine was once so popular that it was mentioned by Charles Dickens, Jane Austen and Napoleon Bonaparte?

3️⃣ Which South African winery experimented with aging wine bottles under the sea to test the effect of ocean pressure and temperature on maturation?

✅ Answer 1: At Vergenoegd Löw Wine Estate in Stellenbosch. Their famous “duck parade” of more than 1 000 Indian Runner Ducks keeps snails and bugs off the vines – an eco-friendly pest-control method that’s become a tourist attraction. Read more here.

 ✅ Answer 2: Constantia sweet wine (Vin de Constance). In the 18th and 19th centuries it was exported all over Europe and even ordered by Napoleon during his exile on St Helena. Charles Dickens mentions it in The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1870) and Jane Austen refers to it in Sense and Sensibility (1811). Read more here.

✅ Answer 3: Landskroon Wines (Paarl) and researchers from Stellenbosch University conducted small-scale trials in 2019, submerging bottles in False Bay to study how cold, dark, high-pressure conditions affect flavor evolution. The wine reportedly aged faster, developing richer texture and complexity. Read more here.

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All the best