Wine guru bottles for Africa’s taste buds
Nyamudoka’s winning brand hits home
When Tinashe Nyamudoka fled Zimbabwe in search of a better life in South Africa during the 2008 financial crisis, he only had a pair of clothes for changing with him.
Now, the 33-year-old waiter is one of the best wine waiters in Africa and is the owner of his own wine brand, Kumusha.
“I came to SA with nothing and now I am exporting wine all over the world. It makes me feel proud that I am inspiring other people,” he said.
Nyamudoka was a supermarket manager in Harare before the financial crisis hit. “It was a bleak and uncertain period. I remember there was no food being sold in my store, only soap. Even if you had a job, there was no food to buy with that money,” he said.
The father of two said he was only 23 years old when he made the decision to come to SA after a friend invited him.
“If you had the means to leave Zimbabwe then that’s what you did. Those who stayed behind did so because they could not risk the trip,” Nyamudoka said.
He said he lived in Cape Town with his friends who had found jobs at restaurants.
He had difficulty finding work because he did not have a work permit.
“I applied to be a manager at several shops but they would not hire me,” Nyamudoka said.
He eventually found work as a waiter towards the end of 2008 and this was where he had his first taste of wine.
“It was not enjoyable at all because I had not had time for it while growing up.
“My manager eventually encouraged me to study wine at the Cape Wine Academy so that I could become a wine waiter,” said Nyamudoka.
The wine connoisseur quickly rose up the ranks before he became the head sommelier (wine waiter) at the 18th best restaurant in the world, the Test Kitchen, in Cape Town.
Nyamudoka now sources wines from around the Cape winelands where he uses his skills as a wine judge to blend his own flavours to make Kumusha, which means “ancestral home” or “roots”.
“It’s important that we enjoy wine in an African way. Traditionally we associate wines to fruits that are not uniquely African such as blueberries and strawberries,” he said.
“I want people to taste my wine and be reminded of their home and the wild fruits that are native to their homes.”
Nyamudoka said he has been able to improve lives back home.
“My mother is very conservative and she did not understand my job. She thought I was getting drunk for a living but she now sees that this job sustains our family,” he said.