A glimpse of the Cape’s future
Friday, August 16th, 2013
Thornton Pillay from Durban, Philani Shongwe from Ulundi, Ricardo Cloete from Steinkopf, Wade Sander from Johannesburg, Heinrich Kulsen and Chandré Petersen from Paarl, and Elmarie Botes from Cape Town – all current members of the Cape Winemaker’s Guild (CWG) protégé programme, all providing a tantalising vision of Cape wine.
Initiated in 2006 for previously disadvantaged South Africans, the programme upgraded in 2012 to offer three places per year for the three-year programme currently making seven protégés part of the guild’s vision of transformation in the wine industry. Since Howard Booysen – now making among the best Riesling in the Cape – three others have completed the programme: Praisy Dlamini (Distell), Sacha Claasen (studying) and Tamsyn Jeftha (Hartenberg).
“I come from a small town in the Northern Cape (Steinkopf ) where most people work on the mines,” says Ricardo. “For me this is not about a career but a lifestyle. I want to create wines that will compete internationally.”
“I’m so proud of the wine I made while I was at De Grendel,” says Chandré, a second-year intern. “It’s fruity, voluptuous and elegant – like me. I was inspired by the fact that there are still only a few woman winemakers and by the example of Carmen Stevens. As I did not do science or biology at school, I could not enrol for viticulture at Stellenbosch, so started a BCom. Then I found out Elsenburg would take me on the strength of my maths so I completed my degree there.”
“I wanted to study something different. When I read an article in a local newspaper about Ntsiki Biyela, the winemaker at Stellekaya, I knew that was what I wanted to do,” says Philani who holds a BSc from Stellenbosch University.
The salaried programme includes 6–12 month stints of mentorship with top winemakers at leading wineries. Applicants must meet certain criteria, like being of a previously disadvantaged group in their final year of study with an aggregate mark of at least 60 percent. The selection process includes psychometric tests and panel interviews.
Heinrich says: “It was only in grade 10 when someone came to our school to talk to us about wine that I became interested … and in my second year at Elsenburg Agricultural Training Institute, when we studied the actual winemaking process, I became really excited”.
The three-year programme costs some R440k per protégé, funded largely by the Nedbank Cape Winemakers Guild Development Trust (through sales of wine donated by guild members), donations from the Nedbank Foundation, and then discretionary grants from the Agricultural Sector Training Authority (AgriSeta) and smaller sponsors like World Cooperage, Amorim, Consol, and African Cellar Suppliers.
The programme will see two of its third-year protégés, Heinrich Kulsen and Elmarie Botes, do vintages in Burgundy, France as part of the Western Cape Burgundy Exchange.
The mentorship is not a one-way street, adds Boela Gerber, winemaker at Groot Constantia and a mentor. “I came out of university 20 years ago, but technology changes and processes are improved upon. These youngsters arrive with fresh ideas. I am learning from them too.”
“Not only do we hope to contribute towards creating exceptional winemakers and future members of the guild but outstanding leaders as well,” says current CWG Chair Louis Strydom.
http://www.wine.co.za/news/flash.aspx?FLASHID=1353
Left to right: Elmarie Botes, Philani Shongwe, Heinrich Kulsen, Wade Sander, Thornton Pillay, Ricardo Cloete and Chandré Pietersen.
– Jonathan Snashall