Celebrating Clipper Race to start a New Year of adventure with Official Wine Partner Stormhoek

Following its successful partnership in the Clipper 2015-16 Race, South African wine brand Stormhoek will celebrate a New Year of adventure as Official Wine Partner for the 2017-18 edition.

Based in the famous Western Cape wine region, Stormhoek will continue to supply the races intrepid crew and supporters with a variety of the eighteen wines in its range at race arrival celebrations and official events around the world during the eleven-month, 40,000 nautical-mile challenge.

Stormhoek Wines, from the “Cape of Storms”, has braved the elements just like Clipper Race crew members, and celebrates the friendships that are made, whenever life is lived.

“Just like the Clipper Race, Stormhoek Wines celebrate life and the idea of dreaming big and being brave. We believe everyone has extraordinary abilities within themselves and that by coming together, through huge adventures like the Clipper Race, we can discover what makes life worth living,” said Bernard Fontannaz MD of Stormhoek Wines.

“We learnt so much and had such a great time during the 2015-16 race edition that we simply had to get involved with the Clipper Race again. As we saw in the last race, and every race before that, it takes guts and persistence to sail across an ocean, and we’re very much looking forward to celebrating with the Clipper Race crews, especially as they sail across the Atlantic, through the “Cape of Storms”, to discover the beauty of our homeland in South Africa,” Bernard adds.

Stormhoek serving crew and supporters at a Clipper Race stopover

During its debut as Official Wine Partner in the tenth edition race, Stormhoek engaged with crew and supporters and the Stormhoek Social Spirit Award was introduced. The award celebrated the individual team spirit on board and allowed all-important support networks ashore to directly contribute to the experience by nominating teams for the award throughout the race on the Stormhoek Wines Facebook page, which saw a 74 per cent increase in Stormhoek’s social media interactions.

The Stormhoek Social Spirit Award also allows non-round the world crew members to feel included as they wait to complete their leg. Clipper 2015-16 Race crew member, Charlotte Willis, who had to wait ten months before she could get on board her team Garmin for Leg 8 said: “For us to win the Stormhoek Social Spirit Award at the end of Race 2 was just incredible.

“It means such a huge amount to so many people; to the friends and family of our Skipper and crew who are tracking Garmin and our progress hourly on the Clipper Race Viewer, as well as building friendships with other supporters through the teamsocial media pages (including supporting each other through Race Viewer addiction!), and to the Garmin crew who have either done their leg and returned home already or those of us that are still (not so patiently!) waiting to start their leg.”

Visit Seattle celebrating its Social Spirit Award success during the Clipper 2015-16 Race

There is no doubt that Stormhoek Wines jump out at you when on the wine shelf, with fun and inspiring designs, you can’t help but notice their bright designs. As Wine Partner, no fewer than 3,604,356 bespoke Clipper Race design bottles of Stormhoek Wine were delivered to countries around the world.

To celebrate the 2017-18 edition crew’s participation in the next years Clipper Race, Stormhoek will be sharing its social spirit and supplying wine at the upcoming Crew Day reception in London on Saturday 14 January.

Follow Stormhoek on Facebook and @StormhoekWines on Twitter to be kept up to date with its Clipper Race news and how to be involved and vote for the Social Spirit Award in the next race.