Over its third decade of existence, the Cape Winemakers Guild evolved into an active, fully-fledged organisation with structures in place to enable it to respond to industry change, growth and developments.
2003-2012
The Cape Winemakers Guild tried to remain true to its founding precept: that of a group of artisanal winemakers who continue to meet and share ideas and techniques to improve their individual skills as well as to further quality wine production in South Africa.
This has been a challenge as the Cape Winemakers Guild has, by necessity and intent - to accurately reflect the burgeoning number of winemakers over the past decade - grown substantially in membership over the past 10 years: 45 by the time of its 30th anniversary celebrated in 2012.
The scope of its activities, commitments, and costs has expanded concomitantly, in every aspect.
During the third decade of the Cape Winemakers Guild, a highly debated topic among members was the recognition of exceptional winemaking ta...
His boss is known on the world stage as 'The Big Easy', but Louis Strydom, winemaker and now managing director of Ernie Els Wines, the Flori...
Bernhard Veller is all business. Astute, efficient, quick thinking, ready to move on to the next item on the agenda, invariably two steps ah...
John Loubser is the personification of the ethos he and wife Karen espouse for their weekend winemaking venture: 'The Silverthorn Story... c...
Niels Verburg was still the winemaker at Beaumont when he bought the 17-hectare piece of mountainside slope, in partnership with Pretoria w...
Jacques Borman was doing great things with shiraz in the 1980s, long before it was fashionable in the Cape Winelands. And it remains his fir...
As David Nieuwoudt drives over the dirt road crest of the Uitkyk Pass and a rock-strewn plain opens up before him, he takes a deep breath of...
Launched in 2009 with a 2007 vintage of two rich red wines, the Louis by Louis Nel range immortalises the memory on a bold black label marke...
Adi Badenhorst does not speak easily about himself or his wines (except when blogging or tweeting). This individualist likes to keep people ...
Duncan Savage was born to make wine at Cape Point Vineyards, where the vines overlook Noordhoek's famous Long Beach and the chilly Atlantic ...
Dewaldt Heyns was the quiet one in the group of firm friends, part of the Elsenburg Agricultural College class of 1995 that produced a clutc...
Seldom has this been more aptly illustrated in the Cape Winelands than during Abrie Beeslaar's tenure as only the third winemaker at Kanonko...
The ebullient Andries Burger is a Stellenbosch University B.Sc. viticulture and oenology graduate After graduation, he joined the Nederburg ...
'I’ve been with Groot Constantia since 2001. I can see myself here for another 10, 20, 30 years...' Boela Gerber lives in what has been ...
Pierre Wahl is without a doubt one smooth operator, but make no mistake: the rather stylish, softly spoken manner of the man in suede loafer...
There are Rianie Strydom and her husband, award-winning winemakers both, happily cooking together - yet separately, as they're working on th...
Kakamas is where Frans Smit grew up, but his career has been dedicated to helping rebuild one of the Cape’s famous old wine farms. Spier...
'The Spar is my food cupboard,' says Coenie Snyman laconically, leaning nonchalantly against the lime-washed butcher's block table in the ce...
Johan Joubert received a call from a colleague who was passing by his blue-chip 30-year-old chenin blanc bush vine vineyard, warning him tha...
While most of his winemaking peers trained locally and went overseas for work stints, Gottfried Mocke did things the other way around....
Bartho Eksteen marches to the beat of his own drum, but in whimsical, cheery rather than imperious fashion. His winery, Hermanuspietersfonte...
Miles Mossop found it in winemaking, courtesy of three men: his late father Tony Mossop; top Cape vintner Gyles Webb; and Rand Merchant Bank...