Wine Diva

10 Women to Receive Special Pampering at RMB WINEX for 3 nights only

In celebration of RMB WineX Joburg’s ten year anniversary, Wine Diva has mapped out a divine and comfortable guided walking tour to showcase to women some exceptional tastings that the show has to offer.

In addition to the well-planned and fun guided tour, Wine Diva has partnered with a star-studded line up of goodie bag and giveaway sponsors making this a really worthwhile night out.

The awe-inspiring sponsors include RMB WineX, Wine Mag, Lindt, Crabtree & Evelyn, greatKaroo water, Beyerskloof, Douglas Green, Tall Horse, Piatto Sandton, Avon, Diemersdal, Fairview cheese, Cazabella Jewellery and Cape Wine Academy.

DIVINEX WINEX runs for 3 consecutive nights in Sandton on Tuesday 27 October, Wednesday 28 October and Thursday 29 October 2009 from 5.30pm – 9.30pm.

The 10 exclusive participants will meet up for the start of the amazing SandtonBosch ramble at Sandton Food Court at 5.30pm for a light frenchy style meal and a survival briefing, then after 2 hours of cruising RMB WineX with Wine Diva who has clues, games and trivia to dish out, the sassy tour troop will round off with a prize giving, coffee, cake and goodie bags reception at Piatto Mediterranean Kitchen Sandton Square. This out of the ordinary all-inclusive RMB WineX celebration is not to be missed.

DIVINEX WINEX exclusive tickets are on sale now for R350 each.
For more information, please call Caroline on 083 263 2660, or email wineclub@winediva.co.za

With that beautiful “Badenhorst Family Wines Kalmoesfontein Semillon Noble Late Harvest 2008” (what a mouthful) still lingering on my lips, I drove home from the Nedbank Cape Winemakers Guild tutored tasting yesterday, wondering what I could possibly write about the event, that would be of relevance to my readers.

(Guild members, if you’re reading this, please don’t complain to the organiser for my cheek and gate crashing, I just said I was the “Weather Girl” and they let me in…)

Don’t get me wrong, I love the event and the exquisite opportunity to learn. Also it’s not stuffy at all with lots of wisdom and wit shared by these great men of wine, and I really was in awe while trying to keep up. But as far as the average garden variety wine diva goes, these wines are a little bit out of my league, and I am not scared to admit it. For the most part the wines are big and beautiful, for a serious wine buyer who has some sort of an impressive basement type cellar below his Camps Bay mansion, and lots of virtuous patience to wait for the investment to mature. Some of the top selling wines go for R5000 for 6 x 750ml bottles on auction – that’s my wine budget for about 70 bottles.

The after party snacks were delicious, but I did have a close call with a mushroom, not knowing it was a mushroom dressed in crumbs, and I am apparently allergic. I didn’t stay very long afterwards to chat and rub shoulders fearing that someone might ask me what I thought. The souvenir black teeth I got to take home from a long-legged lineup of valiant reds may be another reason for my making a quick exit. I looked like I had taken one of those purple fluoride plaque tablets.

Am I not supposed to be this honest about my wine ambitions? With wine I know what I like and certainly taste when I don’t like what’s in my glass, much to my friends’ growing disdain and refusal to let me order wine by the glass anymore, but I also can’t pretend to have a trained enough palate to judge wines that may only be ideal for drinking in 10 years time. I certainly can’t claim either that I am going to bid for any of the wines on auction. I will most likely be grabbing a Saronsberg Provenance Rooi or a Hidden Valley’s Pinotage in the isle at the supermarket, when the big spenders, like Alan Pick of The Butcher Shop & Grill, bid on rare wines at the Nedbank CWG auction on 3 October and part with 3 times enough to pay off my townhouse, park a blue MINI cooper in the garage and have enough change for me to take that extended holiday to Italy I have been dreaming about, but must instead settle for Italian Cooking Workshop with De Grendel Wines.

And as far as linking it to my target audience goes, CWG is a brotherhood of winemakers that judge each other’s wines and chuckle over who is greying and balding more than the next one. Try find a “Women’s month” angle in that! Bruce Jack from Flagstone Wines even confessed that he has been begging for a secret handshake so long that he finally named his red auction wine “Secret Handshake”. Mmm but I did like the name and the taste of his intensely drinkable white wine on auction called “Weather Girl”,  but whether or not I’ll ever get my hands on a glass and a half of it again someday is the big question.

Ok ok, I confess my earlier embellishment; I am able to find a very worthy “Women’s month” angle. There is a strong fundraising element to the CWG Auction in the form of a silent auction. Funds raised through the Silent Auction are donated to the Nedbank CWG Development Trust, which assists with education and empowerment of young people from previously disadvantaged wine farming communities.

Announced in May this year, the first recipients of the Cape Winemakers Guild Protégé Bursaries are Tamsyn Jeftha, who hopes to graduate from the University of Stellenbosch this year, and Sacha Claassen, who is in her final year at Elsenburg Agricultural College. Both these women winemaking students received bursaries to the value of R30,000 to assist them with their studies. The Trust also supports the high school education of talented young girls from previously disadvantaged backgrounds, such as Bloemhof High School for girls in Stellenbosch. The Trust’s first two learners, Vanessa van Niekerk and Cindy-Lee Fredericks, both of Cloetesville, joined the school in 2006.

Anyway ladies, I decided that just for fun and to be cheeky like the diva I am, I would bring you the unendorsed “Wine Diva CWG Awards” as a takeaway for you from my experience. Since not many of us have a chance to see these talented and certainly too modest men of wine-honours, who sit on their stoeps over-looking their best blocks of vines, determining who they can challenge next year with a cultivar that they don’t even grow.

So without further adieu, drumroll please, here is the “Weather Girl’s” report from the Red Carpet at The first annual Wine Diva CWG Awards:

… My favourite wines (am I allowed?) : Beyerskloof Pinotage 2007, Saronsberg Dewalt Heyns Shiraz/ Viognier 2006, Cederberg Private Cellar Semillion 2009, Cederberg Teen die Hoog Shiraz 2007 and that long-winded Kalmoesfontein one.

… The best sense of humour: David Nieuwoudt from Cederburg, with Bruce Jack from Flagstone as runner-up.

… The most likely to choose “cowboy” as an alternative career option: 
Adi Badenhorst of Badenhorst Family Vineyards

… The most likely to be going “Back to the Future” with Marty McFly and Doc Brown: 
Johan Malan from Simonsig with his pinotage philosophy “the future lies in the past”.

… The best looking: Kevin Arnold, (no, not the Fred Savage character from the TV series, The Wonder Years), the winemaker from Waterford.

… The most likely to upset his neighbour with his beautiful Cabernet Sauvignon:
Louis Nel from Hidden Valley Winery

… The most likely to be visiting a European country near to Italy sometime quite soon: Etienne le Riche of Le Riche (If your surname is anything to go by, please can I tag along?)

…Your Best Port in a storm and selling Christmas cake by the glass: Carel Nel from Boplaas

…Hemel en Aarde that’s a lekker Pinot Noir (even after all that Chardonnay): Peter Finlayson from Bouchard Finlayson

… The Most Decorous Nose presented: Bernhard Veller from Nitida

… Knows Pinotage like the back of his terroir: Beyers Truter (my friend Ashley calls his pinotage: “A meal in a glass”)

… Most likely to take the scenic route to rooikappie’s house: Neil Ellis from Neil Ellis (also enjoyed his sense of humour)

… Most interesting op-die-plaas Groot Trek stories: Charles Hopkins from De Grendel

… Most charismatic and yet the Most Green Behind the Guild: Duncan Savage of Cape Point Vineyards

… Most likely to catch a shooting star and put it in his pocket, save it for a New Years day: Jeff Grier of Villeria with his stellar Shooting Star Brut 2005.

I had the most esteemed time tasting “teen die hoog” with the leaders in the art of winemaking, and scribbling down these informal crib notes on my FORMAL tutored tasting sheet. I am actually hoping to crack the nod again next year… ok, at least to the Public Showcase? Pretty please!

PS: I must visit Kalmoesfontein, sounds like a fascinating place!

PPS: You can still catch the JHB Public Showcase to taste these glorious wines and the actual auction, I think bidding starts at R80 a bottle:

• Johannesburg Nedbank Cape Winemakers Guild Auction Showcase
  Thursday, 27 August 2009
  The Atrium, Nedbank Sandton, 135 Rivonia Road
  18:30 to 21:30
  R100 per person including a tasting glass

• The Nedbank CWG Auction will be taking place on Saturday, 3 October at 09h00 at Spier Conference Centre in the Stellenbosch Winelands. To purchase your tickets to the Auction Showcase and find out how you can obtain these rare and exclusive wines visit: www.capewinemakersguild.com, email info@capewinemakersguild.com or call Tel: +27 +21 852 0408.

Ntsiki Biyela had humble beginnings. She grew up under African skies in Zululand with stars in her eyes about going places beyond her home in a place called Mahlabathini. At first she and her grandmother thought she might become a land surveyor. Later in Matric, after excelling in science, all her fellow students in the 1996 school year were talking about engineering, and Ntsiki thought she may become a Chemical Engineer.

With dream of a bright future but no money for further studies, Ntsiki found work as a maid for her extended family in Durban and worked in this capacity for one year, while there was contemplation of her applying for chemical engineering through the technikon. Ntsiki was put in contact with a mentor who was recruiting students for the SAA bursary programme to study winemaking. Ntsiki had no idea what winemaking was all about and her family was nervous about her going far from home to study, but she grabbed at the chance with both hands to make something more herself and applied. “Failure was not an option for me,” she muses. Ntsiki’s application was successful and she received a full bursary from SAA to study and stay at the university in the quaint town of Stellenbosch.

At first Ntsiki struggled with the Afrikaans and felt homesick, but after finding a holiday job on the Delheim wine estate, things started to fall into place. The wine bug bit her and she started to learn more about winemaking, viticulture and cellaring on the job during her holidays. Ntsiki persevered with her BSC Oenology until completion and when she had graduated from university, she heard that Stellekaya was looking for a new winemaker. Upon starting at Stellekaya, Nicholas Adonis, the cellar supervisor helped her to understand the cellar operations and to communicate effectively with the cellar staff.

Stellekaya means home of the stars and where better for Ntsiki to shine. “Stelle is Latin for star and Kaya is iZulu or iXhosa for home,” Ntsiki explains to tour group for 25 German women. Poised and confident as she conducts the cellar tour communicating clearly and patiently while waiting for the translator to convey her messages to the group. The Stellekaya winery used to be an old brandy maturation cellar and has been completely renovated to accommodate the 10 000 cases of premium red wine produced ever year. Stellekaya is a specialist producer of only red wine and their grapes are sourced and selected from producers in the area. “We keep control and have regular meetings with our grape producers to ensure the quality that we want,” explains Ntsiki to the tourists. The Stellekaya winery is conveniently located close to the town centre in Stellenbosch. During harvest time a crane brings the berries up to the cellar, where the juice is extracted from the grapes using a wooden basket press. The punch down method and open fermentation are used for wine production. The wine is matured in French oak barriques for any period between 10 and 22 months depending on the style of wine being produced.

Ntsiki explains that she enjoys working with red varietals and particularly revels in making blends, “Blending the flavours and characters together so that they balance and enhance each other is like getting various different personalities together in one room and making them all get along.”

“All red wines are different and I enjoy seeing people’s reactions to them. I encourage people who are new to drinking red wine to start off with something lighter and fruiter such as the our Hercules or Boschetto and then take it from there. A person must learn to walk before they can run and the same applies to wine tasting and drinking, don’t start with the blockbusters if you are not used to red wine.”

“When people tell me that they don’t drink red wines then I have to ask for a reason. I don’t enjoy oysters but I have tried them at least to make sure.”

Ntsiki has travelled far and wide as a woman in wine. In 2005, she spent 2 months assisting with the harvest on a wine estate in Bordeaux, where Ntisiki was required to do a lot of physical work and she cleaned the tanks and did the pump-overs herself. “It was challenging but fun working experience”, she reminisces. In 2007, Ntsiki travelled to California to meet various winemakers and exchange ideas. She has also visited Holland, Germany, Sweden and London, but quickly adds, “when I need to feel grounded I go back home.”

Ntsiki wraps up her tour of the cellar by conducting a guided tasting for the tour group. She effortlessly pours the wine for 25 women herself and explains the makings behind each wine tasted. Ntsiki is calm and confident; she exchanges freely with people asking questions and takes it all in her stride.

Ntsiki explains that since Stellekaya is the home of the stars, the wines have been named and labelled according to constellations and heavenly bodies.

First, we tasted the Boschetto – a medium bodied fruity blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Shiraz and Sangiovese. The Boschetto has a lovely nose, is a ruby red colour and a fruity, earthy and Mediterranean style wine, which has been kept in French oak for 10 months.

Next we tasted the Hercules, a fruity blend of primarily Sangiovese, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. This is a lighter style wine which can be enjoyed with tomato-based meals. The wine has a great balance of fruit and acidity.

Next the Shiraz, a full-bodied wine, deep red in colour, with lovely spicy yet very well balanced fruit flavours. It’s lighter and elegantly different from the typical Shiraz.

The Merlot is enjoyable and easy drinking. The wine is smooth with soft tannins and fruity nuances of plums, chocolate and blackcurrant.

The Cape Cross is a bold and fruity blend of Merlot, Pinotage and Cabernet Sauvignon. The Pinotage definitely comes through in the lingering aftertaste.

The hand made Stellekaya wines are as exceptional and unique as their lady winemaker. Ntsiki is sure to keep reaching for new stars, before bottling and labelling them as part of the Stellekaya range.

For more info about the Stellekaya range of wines, please visit their website www.stellekaya.co.za