Growing up on a farm I have always had a love for farming, nature and the soil with my veggie garden and 2 chickens named Henna and Hendrik featuring in most of my primary school essays and orals. The love for sharing something that you are truly passionate about in front of a crowd must have started here with plays and orals being my favourite school tasks.

Later years my farming ventures turned into fields of squash, butternuts and pumpkins selling to the local Spar, but unfortunately the scale of this 2 hectare plantation at age 11 was much more difficult to maintain than my veggie garden and led to many of the crops being spoiled by bird damage. (The local Spar was not interested in my sob story and refused to buy any pumpkins).

This led to my first herd of pumpkin-fed pigs which I had kept running throughout my high school career. On Fridays my cooler boxes of hostel leftover food and peels would accompany me back to the farm (let’s just say the moms in the ‘lift club’ were less than impressed with the smell). The pigs were a great part of my childhood and allowed me to pursue my hobbies, but I sold them off towards the end of my high school career when my focus turned more towards helping my father grow grapes.

My father, practising as an advocate at the time, had his hands full; especially during harvest time, and the help was needed. I remember clearly the frustration we both would feel when the wine didn’t turn out the way we thought or sometimes even vinegar. The conclusion was clear that this was due to the lack of understanding the grape and I knew even more than ever I had to obtain education in this field.

This led to a 3-year degree at Elsenburg where the flame was lit for my career and a deep understanding for the grape was obtained. Here, my eyes were also opened to the artistic side of winemaking which was a whole new dimension for me as I always had the dream of being artistic, but couldn’t even paint a stick figure.

An educational tour to Portugal and France in our final student year further escalated the interest in the art of winemaking.

An additional year of living in British Columbia and California helped me to mould my views and winemaking style and I ultimately came to the conclusion that Winemaking is the perfect balance between farming, entertaining and art that I have always looked for in life. The same little boy who couldn’t wait to tell you about his veggies and chickens can’t wait to tell you about his vines and wines today!