New Voices: South Africa's Black Winemakers

Carmen Stevens was turned away from wine school twice because of her colour. She became SA's first Black winemaker in 1995. Ntsiki Biyela saw her first vineyard in 1999 - now Aslina wines is one of the most allocated labels in the country. Thokozani turned farm workers into shareholders. This is wine's most powerful story.

What to do there

4 things to do

1. 1 Find the Domestic Worker Who Became a Winemaker History · Price: moderate

   Visit Aslina Wines and hear Ntsiki Biyela's story

   Ntsiki Biyela was a domestic worker from rural KwaZulu-Natal in 1999 - five years after apartheid ended. She'd never seen a vineyard. She won a scholarship to Stellenbosch University. Became South Africa's first Black female winemaker in 2004. Her first red won gold. In 2017, she launched Aslina Wines, named after her late grandmother. Woman Winemaker of the Year in 2009. She describes her wines using African flavors - amasi (fermented milk) instead of European references. This is her space, her heritage, her wine. Book at aslinawines.com. Unit 1, Building 4 Alberto Drive, Devonbosch. Open Tue-Sat 10am-4pm. When you taste the wine, ask about the journey from domestic worker to winemaker. Watch their eyes when they answer. If Aslina is fully booked, visit The Wine Arc at Nietvoorbij Campus in Stellenbosch (opened December 2021) - it showcases 13 top Black winemakers, most of them women.

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2. 2 Taste Wine Paid for in Wine - Then Taste Freedom History · Free

   Understand the dop system that defined 300 years of oppression

   For over 300 years, wine farm workers were paid partly or entirely in cheap wine. Three times daily, sometimes five. Breakfast, lunch, and the 'loopdop' - the walking tot at day's end. This wasn't generosity. It was control through addiction. The Western Cape has one of the world's highest rates of fetal alcohol syndrome as a direct result. The dopstelsel was officially banned in 1960 but never enforced until 1994. It became strictly illegal with penalties in 2003. Twenty-three years ago. Every Black winemaker working today is reclaiming an industry built on their ancestors' suffering. When you taste wine made by Carmen Stevens (rejected from wine school twice because of her color) or Ntsiki Biyela or Thokozani (80% worker-owned), you are tasting the opposite of the dop system. Ask the staff: 'Can you tell me about how the wine industry has changed since 1994?' Watch their eyes. At any Black winemaker tasting room - Aslina, Carmen Stevens, or Thokozani. If you can't visit, research the dop system before coming. The contrast between wine as oppression and wine as liberation is everything you need to understand South African wine.

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3. 3 Visit the First 100% Black-Owned Winery in Stellenbosch Wine · Price: moderate

   Carmen Stevens Wines - breaking barriers since 2019

   Carmen Stevens applied to Elsenburg wine school in 1990. Rejected. Applied in 1991. Rejected again. Both times because of her color. Applied again in 1992 - told she was rejected because she hadn't done military service. (She had completed an agricultural diploma by correspondence.) She threatened to go to the media. Elsenburg admitted her in January 1993. She graduated in 1995 as the first Black person to qualify as a winemaker in South Africa. In January 2019, she registered Carmen Stevens Wines as the first 100% Black-owned winery in Stellenbosch - the most prestigious wine region in the country. Her Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot, Petite Sirah and Carménère have won awards. Persistence beats prejudice. Book at info@cswines.co.za (recommend 2 weeks advance). Private cellar tasting, prices vary by group size. Taste the range, but ask for the story. The journey from rejection to ownership is the embodiment of the new South Africa. If Carmen Stevens is unavailable, visit M'hudi Wines - the first entirely Black-owned wine tourism farm in South Africa. Harold and Malmsey Rangaka's Cabernet Sauvignon honors Harold's father in the Foro's Legacy label.

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4. 4 Drink Wine Made by the Workers Who Own the Land Wine · Price: moderate · Optional

   Thokozani - 80% worker-owned since 2007

   In 2007, Diemersfontein did something unprecedented: they gave 35 staff members shares in the company. Eighty percent of ownership residing in the hands of a workers forum. Thokozani has its own wine brand and guesthouse, 80% owned by the people who actually work the land. The name means 'celebrations' in Zulu. This is the model most wine estates talk about but few implement - turning farm laborers into stakeholders. The workers make their own wines, under their own label, on their own account. The land reform that was promised in 1994 actually happened here. Contact via thokozani.co.za at Diemersfontein Wine Estate, Wellington. Taste the Thokozani range and ask about the ownership structure. Ask to meet any of the worker-owners if they're available. This isn't a corporate CSR initiative. It's genuine transformation. If Thokozani isn't accessible, research Solms-Delta in Franschhoek (covered on Day 4) - Professor Mark Solms created two trusts to share land and business equity with workers. Or visit Bosman Family Vineyards in Wellington (260 workers received a 26% stake in 2008).

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