South Africa's First Black Female Winemaker
Ntsiki Biyela, a winemaker at Stellekaya Winery in Stellenbosch, is South Africa's first black female winemaker. Born in rural northern KwaZulu-Natal in a village called KwaVuthela, she was raised by her grandmother, Bathabile Sibiya. Biyela was recruited to study viticulture and oenology at the University of Stellenbosch and was awarded a full scholarship by South African Airways, although she admits that at first wine was a very foreign taste to her. She wanted to study chemical engineering, but her mentor, wine connoisseur Jabulani Ntshangase, encouraged her to opt for viticulture.
After completing her apprenticeship at Delheim wines, she graduated in 2003. She joined Stellekaya at the beginning of 2004 as a junior winemaker and in 2005 visited Bordeaux in France to work during harvesting season. Her first batch of boutique red wines will be ready in a year's time. Biyela enjoys listening to music and spending time with her friends.
Source: Mail and Guardian Online, SA
Below is an Excerpt from Interview with Mariette le Roux | Cape Town, South Africa
Being a role model doesn't sit comfortably with Ntsiki Biyela, who overcame modest beginnings in a poor, rural village to become the country's first fully fledged African, female winemaker.
"It is a lot of pressure," the 28-year-old told the media in an interview at her office on the grounds of the Stellekaya winery in the Western Cape's premium winemaking district of Stellenbosch. "I feel I have a responsibility. I have people looking up to me, and I don't want to be responsible for their future not going right."
In stark contrast to an industry where most African people are farm labourers, Biyela -- who only had her first tipple when she went to university -- oozes confidence as she invites visitors into her cluttered office. Biyela was among the first batch of African women to qualify as winemakers, and the first to single-handedly take charge of a cellar. pulling up her nose. "But, with time, I learnt to appreciate and understand red wine and now I really love it!" "The first time I tasted wine, in my first year at university, it was horrible," said Biyela,
She studied viticulture and oenology (the study of wine) at Stellenbosch University on a bursary from South African Airways, and started working at Stellekaya in 2004. She has since nurtured to perfection four prize-winning wines. Winema king was not an obvious choice, and her acceptance of the bursary was prompted more by curiosity than conviction. Being picked for the scholarship, she believes, was motivated in part by a realisation by the wine industry that it needed to bring on board people disadvantaged under the erstwhile racially segregated apartheid government.
"They needed some colour, some blending, you see," Biyela quipped.
Even though she had developed a taste for wine, said Biyela, her family and friends remain unconvinced. "I take wine home when I visit, but I know they just drink it to impress me." But she feels passionate about teaching fellow Africans to appreciate wine. "You can train a palate. I trained mine."
Excerpt from Interview with Mariette le Roux | Cape Town, South Africa
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