270 days ago, on the 10th of January 2009, we joined Twitter. Not knowing much about social media and tech stuff, I soon worked my way through the @, #fail, DM and RT stages. Our mission: to find all South African wine farms on twitter that we can follow.

To date we’re following 38 farms of which 25 are following us back. The other 13 are still under the impression that we’re porn royalty. #Compliment.

To celebrate this twittering occasion we’ve incorporated all the farms twitter handles in Spit or Swallow’s review form. With this integration your reviews will now be publish to twitter with a @ reply to the specific wine farms. This way they will get notify immediately when someone chirps about them.

Let’s have a look at the wine farms on Twitter:
( from early starters to latest joiners )

1. Vilafonte
   Twitter Handle: @mikeratcliffe
   Joined: 27 January 2008
   Tweets: 223
2. Backsberg
   Twitter Handle: @simonback
   Joined: 28 March 2008
   Tweets: 653
3. Noble Hill
   Twitter Handle: @noblehill
   Joined: 24 September 2008
   Tweets: 197
4. Fairview
   Twitter Handle ChrisBryantSA
   Joined 11 October 2008
   Tweets 44
5. Kleine Zalze
   Twitter Handle: @RossSleet
   Joined: 3 January 2009
   Tweets : 16
6. Dombeya
   Twitter Handle: @DombeyaWine
   Joined: 29 January 2009
   Tweets: 955
7. La Motte
   Twitter Handle: @HeinWine
   Joined: 4 March 2009
   Tweets: 166
8. Haut Espoir
   Twitter Handle: @Rambowine & @hautespoir
   Joined: 1 May 2009 & 16 March 2009
   Tweets: 385 & 7
9. Vrede en Lust
   Twitter Handle: @djbuys
   Joined: 19 March 2009
   Tweets: 91
10. Wildekrans
    Twitter Handle: @wildekrans
    Joined: 25 March 2009
    Tweets: 15
11. Ken Forrester
    Twitter Handle: @KFwines
    Joined: 4/9/2009
    Tweets: 38
12. Windfall
    Twitter Handle: @WindfallWine
    Joined: 21 April 2009
    Tweets: 103
13. Highlands Road Wine Estate
    Twitter Handle: @justinhoy
    Joined: 23 April 2009
    Tweets: 115
14. Moreson
    Twitter Handle: @moreson
    Joined: 4/23/2009
    Tweets: 15
15. Haute Cabriere
    Twitter Handle: @HauteCabriere
    Joined 23 April 2009
    Tweets 105
16. Quoin Rock
    Twitter Handle: @JeanneQuoinRock
    Joined: 30 April 2009
    Tweets: 32
17. Akkerdal
    Twitter Handle: @AKKERDAL
    Joined: 30 April 2009
    Tweets: 2
18. The Company of the Wine People
    Twitter Handle: @winepeople
    Joined: 12 May 2009
    Tweets: 129
19. Hidden Valley
    Twitter Handle: @hidden_valley
    Joined: 19 May 2009
    Tweets 0
20. Mischa Wines
    Twitter Handle: @mischawines
    Joined: 22 May 2009
    Tweets: 151
21. Rickety Bridge
    Twitter Handle: @jackierabe
    Joined: 22 May 2009
    Tweets: 10
    
22. Lynx
    Twitter Handle: @Lynx_Wines
    Joined: 23 May 2009
    Tweets: 21
23. Newton Johnson
    Twitter Handle: @NNewton Johnson
    Joined: 23 May 2009
    Tweets: 20
24. Hermanuspietersfontein
    Twitter Handle: @hpf1855
    Joined: 29 May 2009
    Tweets: 28
25. Villiera
    Twitter Handle: @villiera
    Joined: 3 June 2009
    Tweets: 27
26. Solms Delta
    Twitter Handle: @solms_delta
    Joined: 10 June 2009
    Tweets: 0
27. King Family Vineyard
    Twitter Handle: @KingFamVineyard
    Joined: 15 June 2009
    Tweets: 6
28. Kleinhoekkloof Wines
    Twitter Handle: @Kleinhoekkloof
    Joined: 19 June 2009
    Tweets: 20
29. Graham Beck
    Twitter Handle: @BubblesFerreira & @GrahamBeckWines
    Joined: 30 June 2009 & 27 June 2009
    Tweets: 123 & 3
30. Bushmanspad
    Twitter Handle: @Bushmanspad
    Joined: 12 July 2009
    Tweets: 20
31. Jordan
    Twitter Handle: @capewine & @JordanGary
    Joined: 28 July 2009 & 20 July 2009
    Tweets: 2 & 19
32. JC le Roux
    Twitter Handle: @LeGoodLife
    Joined: 24 July 2009
    Tweets: 30
33. Wolvendrift
    Twitter Handle: @wolvendrift
    Joined: 30 July 2009
    Tweets: 9
34. Mooi Bly
    Twitter Handle: @MooiBly
    Joined: 3 August 2009
    Tweets: 5
35. Durbanville Hills
    Twitter Handle: @Martin_Moore
    Joined: 4 August 2009
    Tweets: 67
36. Yonderhill
    Twitter Handle: @YonderHillWine
    Joined: 27 August 2009
    Tweets: 32
37. Delheim
    Twitter Handle: @delheim
    Joined: 1 September 2009
    Tweets: 33
38. Kanu
    Twitter Handle: @kanuwines
    Joined: 7 October 2009
    Tweets: 1
39. Simonsig Estate
    Twitter Handle: @Simonsig_Estate
    Joined: 1 October 2009
    Tweets: 18
40. Eagle Nest Wines
    Twitter Handle: @eaglesnestwines
    Joined: 23 June 2009
    Tweets: 23

Top 5 loud mouths

Only 9 farms have tweeted more that 100 times since they’ve joined and some haven’t tweeted at all. DombeyaWine is leading the pack at this stage, with simonback right on their doorstep. Rambowine takes the 3rd spot in true Rambo style, with mikeratcliffe in the 4th position. NobleHill is in the 5th spot and let’s not forget about Winex_Visitor, their brainchild, which will be tweeting away at the Joburg WineX, end October.

Top 3 popular tweeps

Vrede en Lust @djbuys followers 1,843

Dombeya @DombeyaWine followers 1,557

Mischa @mischawines followers 725

1. rambowine says:

   October 9, 2009 at 4:14 pm

   Awesome page, thanks for the effort Anel. Spit or swallow actually prompted us to join twitter back in the day! And we werent trawling for porn…
2. Simon Back says:

   October 9, 2009 at 5:43 pm

   Hi Anel, cool page, I’ve missed a number of those. What about @eaglesnestwines, @HermitontheHill and @TWithington… SB
3. Elizabeth Meades says:

   October 9, 2009 at 5:52 pm

   Very interesting numbers and facts!
4. 406 says:

   October 10, 2009 at 10:27 am

   @rambowine: Thanks Rob, glad you were prompt by SOS to join twitter. LOL for the porn trawling

   @simonback: Thanks for the heads up on those 3 farms. Will add them to my followers ASAP
5. Spit or Swallow says:

   October 27, 2009 at 12:31 pm

   We welcome @Simonsig_Estate to the list.