STELLENBOSCH. Ntsiki Biyela is a pioneer in the South African wine industry. She’s the winemaker at Stellekaya, a top end winery in Stellenbosch, that exports to Britain and north America. The area is the heartland of an industry steeped in centuries of conservative tradition.
Ntsiki Biyela relates when she first started she looked around and saw only men in the industry; all white and that scared her. She is now however into her second vintage and full of praise for the unselfish help and support she has had from her more established colleagues.
Before the arrival of democracy in South Africa in 1994 it was black hands that worked the vineyards and whites that made the decisions and the profits.
For aspirant black wine producers there was little to aspire to beyond fieldwork. Oppression under the apartheid system drove Jabulani Ntshangase into 12 years of exile in America, where he gained the knowledge and experience that has equipped him to become a leading figure in the battle to transform the wine industry.
“When I came back here in 1995 after I had been away for almost 20 years I discovered that the whole wine industry needed a transformation. It meant that one had to go and recruit kids that were very strong in their mathematics as well as sciences so that they would be admitted at Stellenbosch university which is still the only university in the entire continent that offers a BSC in agriculture allowing them to major both in viticulture and oenology.
There is immense pressure to accelerate the pace of transformation in all sectors of South African industry, but it is the marketplace that will be the real test for the process.
The ANC government has a far-reaching Black Economic Empowerment policy that sets ratios of black participation in all of South Africa’s industries. These equity standards will shape the racial makeup at all levels from ownership through management and in the workforce. The South African wine industry is currently worth $2,2 billion a year and the government wants to see significant growth and the benefits spread more equitably among blacks and whites alike.
Nosey Pieterse, a former political activist wants to see fundamental changes to the ownership structure of the wine industry. He believes this will add value to the South African brand.
He is convinced that people tend not to do business only because you have a good product and only because you have a good price they also do business with you based on your ethics, how you acquire the products and the processes involved.
At a trade expo in Sweden, Maja Berthas, representative for Wines of South Africa said about her experience in the Nordic market.
‘When you have a glass of wine of course you can taste it and you can feel all the aromas. But when you know the history of the wine and when it has a very interesting background it will also of course make the wine taste better as well, so that’s very important.’
At New Beginnings Winery, farm workers produce wines for export, using fruit from a vineyard that they were given by their employer.
A long history of discrimination didn’t prepare the new owners for some of the challenges. Victor Titus is the project secretary and driving force he admits it has been a huge challenge to get a group of, largely, uneducated farm workers to understand the business aspect of the industry .
Of course there’s always risk to driving industrial change at a government level.
Right now the industry employs about 350 000 people and the government is hoping to substantially increase that figure over the coming years.
But for John Platter, one of the industries leading experts, the mix of new talent and energy is more than enough to offset the turbulence that transformation brings.
South African wines are currently ranked 8th in the world in terms of export volumes, just behind Germany.
In terms of quality though, they can already stand along side many of the world’s very best.
The industry is confident that the changes it is witnessing now will enhance its reputation, and not put at risk the palates it has already won over.
Not the least Nordic palates. The Nordic countries have taken to South African wine in a big way.
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