Black wine matters

Every three years, Cape Town turns into the epicentre of South African wine. Then there is Cape Wine, a dynamic fair where everyone who does anything with wine comes together. In September, it's that time again. One of the big topics? The rise of black-owned wineries. That movement is growing, but is still too small.
Text: Magda van der Rijst | Image: Magda van der Rijst and Aslina Wines

First, let's go back to the last Cape Wine. As a result of the corona epidemic, organiser WOSA had, Wines of South Africa, had to skip an extra year so the turnout of both wine producers and visitors in October 2022 was even bigger and more enthusiastic than in ordinary years. For three days, people tasted, talked and partied. Moreover, serious seminars were scheduled. One of them was Black Excellence - The Key to Success in our Industry. 

Only 35 in black hands

Although a lot of hard work is being done by South Africans and a variety of support organisations to achieve equality and inclusiveness, the proportions in the wine industry are still hugely skewed. 88 per cent of South Africa's population is black and at most three per cent of the total number of wineries have black owners. This huge minority is not surprising when you consider that only 30 years, since Apartheid was abolished in 1994, have black South Africans been allowed to enter the wine industry and own land at all.

Suguqa's dream

One of the speakers at the seminar was Paul Siguqa, owner of Klein Goederust in Franschhoek. Siguqa sees self-owned land as a prerequisite for strengthening the black South African's position in the wine industry. Siguqa himself saved up for years to finally buy in 2019 the piece of land his family had been farming since 1905. Siguqa: "There is sometimes a perception that the wine industry is new to black people. That's true if you look at the higher-ups, but my parents and ancestors had been working in the vineyard and cellar for centuries. We know the country inside out.' 

No wine on the table

Yet having experience is different from having a wine culture. Wine was simply not part of everyday life for many black South Africans. Ntsiki Biyela noticed this when she was placed with viticulture at Stellenbosch University through a South African Airways scholarship.

Ntsiki: 'I had no idea what the study entailed, but after rejections for three other studies, I immediately said yes. I really wanted to study and something agricultural suited me. I grew up in nature and learnt about it from my grandmother, but she didn't drink wine. There was never wine at our house. I knew nothing about wine, not even how it was supposed to taste. The words used to describe the taste of wine did not match what I knew at all. In order to build a wine culture, recognisable words were also needed.'