“I’ve spent my entire life on Fairview, my late mother birthed me on the farm. I was born in the house adjacent to the tasting room.
“I’m a born farmer. I never thought of doing anything else, ever.”
Charles is the third generation owner of wine and cheese producer Fairview in Paarl. He is also the owner of the neighbouring Spice Route, though the wines are all produced in the Swartland, the farm offers a platform for visitors to taste the wines, there are also a number of restaurants as well as a brewery located there.
In 2014 Charles received the International Wine Challenge Lifetime Achievement. And what a life it has been and continues to be.
His grandfather, an immigrant from Lithuania, Charles Back I came to South Africa in 1902, whereabout he set up a successful wine export business. Upon his death in 1955, he bequeathed a wine farm to each of his two sons. Charles’s father Cyril Back was granted Fairview, where he lived with his wife Beryl.
Soon Charles Back II made an appearance. “Farming was all I ever knew, all I ever wanted to do. A good example is that when I was a little kid my mom had to bring my lunch out to me on the tractor.”
After being schooled locally, “at the best school in South Africa, Paarl Gimnasium!” He went on to do military service for a year, before heading to Elsenberg to get his oenology degree.
“Part of our winemaking course was to do practical work. I ended up at Perdeberg, under winemaker Joseph Huskisson. After a day or two he left me running cellar by myself! It was quite a lot of responsibility. I worked hard, started early in the morning, and finished at one or two at night.
“Before this I didn’t consider becoming a winemaker, I thought I’d simply be a farmer. At Elsenberg, the bug bit me, and for the first time in my life I really applied myself to study.”
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