Attendance at Cape Wine 2012 exceeded all expectations, with figures released shortly before doors closed showing that well over 3,000 people descended on the Cape Town International Convention Centre over the course of the three-day show.

Tasting wines from 305 producers attending "over-subscribed" seminars as well as the "extremely popular" Soap Box sessions where producers were given the opportunity to voice their opinions in a less formal "speaker`s corner", the visitors were categorised as follows:

International trade: 254
Importer:339

Wine educator: 98
International media: 102
MW group: 26
International sommelier/chef: 36

South African based International Trading companies and importers: 149

South African sommelier/chef: 30
South African trade: 472
South African media: 146
Unclassified/other: 850

"Do yo`all realise #CapeWine2012 is trending above #Malema?" tweeted Angela Lloyd.

"The catalogue for #CapeWine2012 makes Wine Grapes look like a mere pamphlet," tweeted Richard Hemming (@RichardHemming) to Jancis Robsinson (@jancisrobinson), his Purple Pages boss and author of Wine Grapes, a guide to more than 700 of the world`s "most important" grape varieties.

"Wow, what a great show, SA wine rocks!" said sommelier Josephine Gutentoft (@josephinewine).

"Bravo South Africa," summed up Warwick`s Mike Ratcliffe (@mikeratcliffe).

"Cape Wine 2012 has been one of the best wine events I have attended," commented UK wine writer Jamie Good (@jamiegoode). "Lots of fun, too."

 Mario Scheuermann ‏@weinreporter

After this 3 days of Cape Wine 2012 we must clearly say: South Africa is today the most interesting wine country in the world. #capewine2012