In the grip of the grape’s allure
Brookdale winemaker Kiara Scott is making waves in the wine world. By Biénne Huisman
It’s a sweltering day in the Cape Winelands. At the Brookdale Estate alongside the Klein Drakenstein mountains near Paarl, Kiara Scott has been up since 5am, harvesting grapes.
Daily, she leads a team of 20 workers armed with scissors and crates. Today they picked Syrah and Chenin Blanc – the latter one of Brookdale’s signature cultivars. Harvesting lasts two months.
Speaking to DM168, the 28-year-old winemaker smiles. Yes, she calls the shots. She decides when specific grape varietals in different parts of the vineyard should be picked. “How do I feel [about] harvesting? Well, excited and nervous at the same time,” she says.
“Because you need to make sure that you’re picking at the right time. You can’t put the grapes back, you know. Once they’re picked it’s done. So people say the difference between a good and a bad winemaker is knowing when to pick.”
And how does she know when it is the right time? “There are a lot of indicators. The sugar concentration should be right, the pH balance of the vine. We look at what the leaves look like, for example. It all depends on what style of wine you are making, of course.”
Considered an industry trailblazer, Scott has been the official winemaker at newly refurbished Brookdale since 2019, advised by consultant Duncan Savage. Last year in the United Kingdom, Sunday Times wine columnist Will Lyons listed Brookdale’s Chenin Blanc as one of his preferred tipples paired with seafood.
Scott doesn’t drink coffee. In the morning, she says a prayer, reads a verse, and is off to work at 5.30am. This is doable even after having two glasses of wine with dinner the previous night, she says. In her own glass she prefers white wines, but she does not want to choose a particulate cultivar.
She likens the farm’s vineyards to people – each section has its own personality and quirks.
“Even though I’m still learning so much, I’m beginning to get a feel for the vineyards here,” she says. “You know, this block does this, that block does that.
The older vines, they’re a bit like older people. They’ve seen a lot of things, so the weather and certain influences don’t move them too much. Whereas the younger vines are kind of like young people: ‘Ohhhh, it’s so hot!’ And all of a sudden the sugar spikes. ‘Ohhhh it’s a windy day, it rains…’ And they’re moved by that.”
As she speaks her features are animated; around her face four pigtails sway. “So you get to know your vines,” she says. “It’s almost like a mother who knows her children.”
Scott’s mother works in IT and her father is an electrician, but it was her grandmother, Audrey, who raised her. Scott grew up in a home where alcohol was abused.
“So that was kind of my first introduction to wine,” she says. “As this thing that makes people act the fool. I didn’t even realise winemaking was a career ... instead of putting me off, the alcohol abuse made me curious to learn.”
The social ills of her youth bred in Scott a deep desire to succeed: “I just saw so much poverty, drug and alcohol abuse. Something in me just said: ‘I don’t want that. Whatever I need to do, to not be like that, I’ll do it.’”
While at Muizenberg High School, Scott had three competing ambitions: she wanted to become either a classical musician, a lawyer or a winemaker. “I used to love playing the flute and the piano. Then for a while I thought I’d be good at being a lawyer, because I’m so opinionated and not afraid to speak up. But then I was like, no, too much paperwork. In the end, I feel like winemaking chose me.”
Despite initial reluctance from some family members about her chosen career, grandmother Audrey supported her: “They weren’t too pleased, and obviously wondered where on earth I came up with this idea … My grandmother would be the one to encourage and motivate me to go for it. She had a bad story herself growing up. Under apartheid, she had an education of basically up to grade three.”
At Stellenbosch University’s Elsenburg Agricultural College, Scott was awarded one of three Cape Winemakers Guild scholarships in her third year. After completing her studies she cracked the guild’s postgraduate protégé programme, which saw her travel to California and France to train with top winemakers.
In this time, apart from observing some of the world’s finest wine cellars in the Rhône Valley and around San Francisco, Scott had fun too: travelling to Mexico and exploring Paris with friends. She recalls: “France was amazing. I mean, the cheese, it was as big as my face. Paired with charcuterie and rosé, all this at breakfast. I loved Paris; I stayed in a hostel, we would walk around the city at midnight, drinking great wine from plastic cups.”
After returning to Cape Town, Duncan Savage approached Scott to help at his cellar, Savage Wines. Savage introduced her to Brookdale’s owner, Tim Rudd.
On being a woman in South Africa’s male-dominated wine industry, Scott says: “At many wineries, I was the only woman. Initially, I would make an effort to match the men ... For example, if a man could pick up a barrel, I would pick up a barrel, too. But somehow, over the years, I’ve changed. I embrace the fact that I’m a woman now. There’s strength and power in that. I mean, men are physically strong, but women have great attention to detail, for example. You know, I see things that maybe they don’t see. There is a place for each gender.”
Meanwhile, Covid-19 lockdown restrictions have dealt a blistering blow to the country’s wine industry, with an estimated R8-billion loss in local sales.
A blow felt at Brookdale, too, where eight tonnes of grapes were “left on the floor”. This means grapes are cut off and left to rot in the vineyards.
The older vines, they’re a bit like older people. They’ve seen a lot of things, so the weather and certain influences don’t move them too much. Whereas the younger vines...
“Oh man,” sighs Scott. “I think the wine industry and government, there must be some sort of middle ground, you know.”
On alcohol abuse she says: “It’s such a layered problem ... We need to change and educate people about how to use wine. It’s not something you chase down in one gulp, to escape your circumstances. It’s something to savour, to enjoy.”
Meanwhile, Scott is also working on developing a mentorship programme for children on the wine estate. “In my past, someone looked at me and went: ‘I’m going to give this girl a chance, I will back her.’ This is what I want to do now for other kids,” she says. “Breaking the cycle of poverty for them.”