The challenge
Savage had been the winemaker at Cape Point Vineyards near Noordhoek in South Africa.
“Cape Point was a great learning curve, as I started there straight from Elsenburg Agricultural College. It was a great opportunity as a young winemaker, to have access to fruit of that quality, and the site is second to none,” Savage explains.
In 2016, he left to invest more time in Savage Wines, his own label at a cellar in Salt River, in the heart of Cape Town.
“A good dose of passion can make just about anything work. Savage was a natural progression for me. I’m ambitious and I love what I do,” he says.
He’s also a member of the Cape Winemakers Guild, a prestigious group whose members mentor protégés and transfer their skills. While this happens in many wine producing countries, it’s vitally important work in South Africa, which has an official unemployment rate of 32.6% — but where youth unemployment rate soars to 46.3%.
The Cape Winemakers Guild Protégé Program is part of the reason that Banele Vakele, a talented young winemaker, could begin his career at Savage Wines, after completing his own agricultural qualification. It’s a job that will stand him in good stead for a progression through the wine industry.
Another such program is the Nedbank Cape Winemakers Guild Development Trust, developed in 1999 with the intention to mentor and empower promising viticulture and oenology students. With South Africa’s history of racial and economic inequality, it’s a vital skills transfer opportunity for historically disadvantaged winemakers and viticulturists.
Vakele follows the legacy of prior Protégés who have found gainful employment in the wine industry. Winemaker Rudger van Wyk was one, who is now employed by Stark-Condé Wines.
Van Wyk left the three-year-long Protégé Program a year early when he had the chance to be employed as the assistant winemaker at Stark-Condé Wines. In 2016, he was promoted to winemaker — and won the 2018 Diners Club Young Winemaker of the Year Award for the Stark-Condé Stellenbosch Syrah 2016.
...
A tough road
For many who aspire to produce wines for themselves, however, things are arduous. Statistics from Vinpro, the South African wine industry body, show that only 28% of South African wine grape growers were profitable in 2019. On top of that, it’s almost impossible for people without wealth to even consider entering the world of vineyards and wineries.
Click HERE to read the full article.