Grapeexpectations
South African winemakers pursue multi-barrel strategy to become China’s new toast
When nondumiso Pikashe was teaching english and life orientation in a school in Cape Town, there was no place for wine in her life. Or that’s what she thought. Her brother was an alcoholic and in her community, wine was regarded as something that created drunkards.
But a decade later, she is the co-owner of a vineyard where she teaches youngsters about the potential of winemaking as a lucrative career path and a step to strengthen national identity.
The change, as the 49-year-old told Destinyconnect. com in an interview last year, came from her curiosity about the dichotomy of wine: “In the media, wine was always projected … as an iconic beverage of elegance but in my community, it was just looked down upon. I wanted to find out why.”
Her curiosity led her to explore the industry and she was hooked, opening up a new world for black vintners, especially women. In 2006, after an earlier failed attempt, she set up her own winery, Ses’fikile Wines, with three
partners. Ses’fikile is derived from Xhosa, one of the major languages spoken in South Africa.
“Loosely translated, it means ‘we have arrived,’” Pikashe told Chinafrica. “It is a multifaceted concept. It refers to the arrival of women in a space previously reserved for men to collaborate with them, the arrival of South Africa itself … in the global arena to compete with other wine-producing regions.”
Ses’fikile makes three types of wines but is yet to get major retailers to sell them. Pikashe has been told that “black brands do not work.” As an emerging black winemaker, she says the skepticism is due to “lack of recognition as a result of being non-players in the past in this space.” It also means she has to struggle to find sustainable funding and support.
But Pikashe is optimistic about 2017. In March, Wesgro, the official tourism, trade and investment promotion agency for Cape Town and the Western Cape Province, brought a delegation of Chinese importers of South African wine to Cape Town so that they could meet black winemakers and learn about their labels.
“[Though] no memorandum of understanding has been signed yet, there are possibilities,” Pikashe said. “I have been to China four times. I think this mission
will be the