Monday, 21 October, 2019
Wines of South Africa, Fiona McDonald
Want to know how to edit a PDF document? Google it – and take your pick of online resources. It might be a YouTube video that someone has put together but the information is out there. Want to know how many ships were wrecked off the South African coastline between 1800 and 1900? Google it and you’ll have 432 000 references in about 0.2 seconds!
Back in 1979 Stellenbosch Farmer’s Winery was looking to sell more wine. To do so it needed a market that understood the product – which, at the time, very few South African consumers did. So it came up with the Wine Plan – and part of this plan was to teach people the basics. How grapes are grown, what grapes are used, how wine is made, various styles of wine and so on. And that’s how the Cape Wine Academy came into being. It’s just celebrated a landmark anniversary.
It’s been 40 years since Phyllis Hands was appointed as Principal of the newly formed Cape Wine Academy. She started off with a blank slate and was on hand at Nederburg in Paarl recently to provide some insight into those early days, alongside two of the first three Cape Wine Masters, Duimpie Bayly and Bennie Howard. Sadly, Tony Mossop, the third member of the trio died some years ago.
Click here to read the full article