Mentorship

Wednesday, March 9th, 2011

Riesling is a grape variety that taxes the hearts and brains of wine writers and winemakers alike. It’s not a ‘love it or hate it’ grape but when you do love it, it really sets its hook into you.

A recent Riesling tasting in Cape Town set three local examples against some German examples – and the styles varied substantially. But there was one wine which gave me pause during the tasting. It was Howard Booysen’s wine.

One of my fellow tasters, a winemaker, said he would have been hard-pressed to pick it as a South African example. While this says a lot about the internationalisation or homogeneity of styles that have developed worldwide, it also speaks volumes about initiatives to train previously disadvantaged winemakers.

Howard Booysen was one of the original members of the Cape Winemakers Guild’s protégé scheme which was launched in 2006. The idea is that a promising young winemaker is granted the opportunity of working with Guild members over a three year period – and being paid to do so. It’s an internship with a difference because these promising youngsters are giving the phenomenal opportunity of working with and learning from a variety of the country’s best winemakers. What a great career kickstart when ending tertiary education!

Booysen spent time working with Carl Schultz at Hartenberg, Gary Jordan at Jordan, Graham Beck Wines with Pieter Ferreira as well as Bruce Jack at Flagstone. The Protégés spend between six months and a year with each mentor. The latest two recruits are Tamsyn Jeftha and Sacha Claassen who have begun their second harvest with their second mentors. Jeftha spent a year working at the Company of Wine People with Nicky Versfeld and has moved onto Jeff Grier at Villiera while Claassen has swopped Villiera for Nitida where she will be mentored by Bernard Veller. Meanwhile, Elmarie Botes is currently working her first harvest on the programme with John Loubser at Steenberg.

When launched under the auspices of the Nedbank Cape Winemakers Guild Trust, the aims and objectives of the programme were to not only transform the local wine industry by nurturing and cultivating promising young people who might previously have been denied such opportunities through lack of access to education or by economics, but to ultimately empower them to become ‘winemakers of excellence’.

On the evidence of Booysen’s Riesling, I think both the Guild and the greater South African wine fraternity can be happy about the results being produced.