South Africa’s most celebrated sparkling winemaker, Pieter Ferreira has been instrumental in the evolution of Graham Beck’s Cap Classique wines.
You have to have a certain type of personality to carry off the nickname ‘Mr Bubbles’, and Pieter Ferreira manages it with no little aplomb. On the sort of chill February morning that only London can produce – persistent rain falling from a sky the colour of dirty tupperware – I meet him in the lobby of his budget hotel. His right foot is clad in an enormous plastic boot. ‘I tripped over a hose in the winery,’ he explains cheerfully as we stomp out under an umbrella to find breakfast.
Pieter Ferreira is South Africa’s most celebrated sparkling winemaker, a veteran who has been in on every significant development in South African bubbles over the last three decades. He created the Graham Beck collection – non-vintage, vintage and the premium Cuvée Clive – which is made from Chardonnay and Pinot Noir from seven different regions, with 70% coming from their own vineyards in Robertson.
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Pieter 'Bubbles' Ferreira, COO of Graham Beck in Robertson.
Born in Durban, Ferreira was apprenticed in Franschhoek and worked vintages in the 1980s at Champagne Mumm, George Vesselle in Bouzy, and at Moët & Chandon. He joined Graham Beck in 1990 and has been there ever since, establishing himself as the foremost exponent of Cap Classique in South Africa, as well as forging a joint venture with England’s Hambledon Estate.
‘My life has been bubbles,’ he tells me over coffee and croissants. He’s been with Graham Beck for 33 years, during which time he has overseen its transformation to a two-million-bottle producer, which should rise to three million in five to ten years. In 2016 he took the decision to drop all still wine production, on the basis that ‘if you asked a hundred people what the Graham Beck name meant, they would say sparkling.’ He doesn’t regret it for a minute, he says. He was instrumental in the creation of the ‘Méthode Cap Classique’ name, which is now the generic brand for South African sparkling wine (unable to call their wine ‘Méthode Champenoise’, the 14 main producers in South Africa got together over a long weekend in 1992 and ‘thrashed out’ the new name).
Vineyards at Graham Beck wine estate in Robertson.
What was your childhood ambition?
To rule the world.
What do you know now that you wish you’d known when you were 21?
Nothing. I was in a happy space at 21.
What exercise do you do?
I grew up a surfer boy, and as I was in Durban I then went on to play a little rugby; in later years I started mountain biking and that keeps me in shape.
What is the character trait you most wish you could change in yourself?
I’d like to be a better communicator.
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