Wine, cigars and football

The FIFA World Cup has come and gone with all its grandeur and magnificence. All memories now sit on a mantelpiece in our minds, to be cherished and shared with posterity.

Amid the football-fuelled whoopee of 2010 remain some memories that are more sentimental than others – the real tearjerkers that instantly cause our eyes to well up whenever they cross our minds. A showpiece the size of football World Cup hits upon the hosting nation like a juggernaut, leaving its citizens pulverised by the sheer fervour and camaraderie it generates among its followers.

It seizes upon its faithful like a contagion, swelling them with chestfuls of patriotism induced by the sheer experience of a community of nations massing on one country during a month-long football craze.

“What the heck does all this mistyeyed schmaltz have to do with the world of wine?” you might well ask.

Well, the two worlds did connect for me – rather poignantly. It happened three days before the final between Spain and Holland, actually. Thursday night (being infamously named Phuza Thursday) was in.full swing during the last lap of the World Cup at Katzy’s, a footloose extension of The Grillhouse in Rosebank. Amid.the nocturnal madness, Joburg insomniacs were basking in the glory of a glowing list of visitors. There was John Barnes, Ruud Gullit, Steve McNamara (I think it was) and a host of other football luminaries rubbing shoulders with locals in the smoke-fi lled venue that night. Mid-month invariably being the time to apply austerity measures, I had just ordered a glass of a budget Pinotage (R75 a glass), when I felt a tap on my shoulder. “How are you?” a bespectacled bloke shouted above the din of the resident band. “I’m.Joseph Jaffe from New York, formerly South Africa. Man, am I happy to be back in my native country during the World Cup.”

“Oh yeah?” I responded, still wondering what had triggered the encounter.

After I had told Joseph my name, he motioned to his boisterous buddies in the corner to come and meet me. He then inquired which wine I was drinking. Pinotage, I answered with a tinge of modesty. “Pinotage, which one?” I gave him the name of the wine. “No, no! I don’t mean to be rude, Len. Give me that glass.” He grabbed my glass and, after decanting it into the bar sink, turned to the barman: “Give this friend of mine the most expensive Pinotage you have, please.” It turned out to be some pricey old vintage of Kanonkop. “There you are.” He handed me the wine before telling me who he really was, besides being “Joseph Jaffe”.

Lo and behold, it turned out that this chap is a helluva marketing guru causing waves in the United States, especially in New York. He is one of the most soughtafter consultants, speakers and thought leaders on marketing. In 2006, he founded strategic consultancy Crayon, which he ran until it was acquired by Powered in January 2010. His “impassioned, straight-shooting and honest perspectives have found their way to every major media outlet, including... CBS Evening News, ABC World News, Bloomberg, NPR, the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, USA Today, Fortune, Newsweek, Business Week, Ad Age, Adweek...”.

Educated at the University of Cape Town, he is a multi-millionaire and has also written three books: Life After The 30-Second Spot, Join the Conversation and Flip the Funnel: How to Use Existing Customers to Gain New Ones.

What followed were longs chats into the wee hours, interspersed with high fi ves, spells of patriotism, hoarse-voiced sing-alongs of Bob Marley’s ‘One Love’ and other much-loved international standards. Even John Barnes ambled to the stage to give a rap-song rendition of forgettable lyrics. Who cared? It blended well with the all-night revelry, heightened – for good measure – by cigar chomping and wine. All this heady stuff – just over a glass of a World Cup wine.

The emotional hangover from that memorable encounter still brings a glaze to my eye.