Two new Cape Wine Masters receive their diplomas

Two Cape Wine Masters (CWM) who graduated in May from the Cape Wine Academy (CWA) were presented with their diplomas at an awards luncheon hosted by the Cape Wine Academy and the Institute of Cape Wine Masters (ICWM) on 12 August and sponsored by Van Loveren Family Vineyards in Robertson.

They are Helena Melis, marketing manager, Spirits, Wine and Confectionery Buyer at Big Five Duty Free, Johannesburg, and Mark Philp, a director of the Selfords and Donford Motor Group of companies in the Cape.

Mark Philp also won the new CWM Dissertation Excellence Award 2022 for the best dissertation adding to the body of South African wine knowledge, sponsored by Kleine Zalze Wines.

CWM Mark Philp’s dissertation aims to create greater awareness of the main factors contributing to the carbon dioxide generated by the wine industry in the processes of wine-making, packaging, distribution and in wine consumption and offers useful measures for neutralising, sequestering or eliminating such emissions to achieve that desirable net zero carbon footprint.

CWM Helena Melis’s dissertation is on the unique marketing platform that Big Five Duty Free (BFDF) offers to local wine brands in terms of showcasing their products to foreign markets, the merchandising options to promote consumer purchasing in a diverse international marketplace and the promotional value of wine brand ambassadors in selling wines.

On this occasion the Institute of Cape Wine Masters (ICWM) also announced its Vision 2030 programme for broadening racial and cultural representation in its membership, enhancing the reputation of the wine industry and the image of its products and building a contemporary and aspirational African wine culture through this engagement by involving more black candidates in the prestigious CWM qualification.

The International Wine and Spirit Competition (IWSC) has just confirmed its pledge of £2 500 (R50 000) towards this programme.

“The IWSC funding is a most welcome kickstart to the wine journey of our first two Vision 2030 candidates, and ICWM is looking for more sponsors to follow this example” said Jacques Steyn, Chairman of the ICWM.

Four candidates have been selected to enter the programme over the next two years. They are Lethabo Komana, a chef and events management consultant, and Xolani Mancotywa, a certified sommelier, qualified chef and culinary artist. Lerato Thwane and Heinrich Bothman have already been lined up as the candidates for 2023-2025.

At the annual black-tie dinner of the ICWM held on Saturday evening 13 August the names of the winners of the Wine Personality of the Year and the Dave Hughes trophy were announced.

Beyers Truter of Beyerskloof Winery was designated the Wine Personality of the Year for 2022 after a lifetime of achievement in the wine sphere. As founder and longtime chairman of the Pinotage Association, Truter has played a vital role in educating consumers in South Africa and around the world on the red wine he so dearly loves – Pinotage.

He is the unsurpassed eight-time winner of the Pinotage Top Ten Competition and has won many other prestigious awards, including the 1987 Diners Club Winemaker of the Year for Pinotage and the 1659 Award for Visionary Leadership at the 10th annual Wine Harvest Commemorative event in February 2021.

ICWM chairman Jacques Steyn, who is also general manager of Jordan Wine Estate, was designated the third winner of the Dave Hughes Trophy. Instituted in honour of the co-founder, who was made an honorary CWM of the Cape Wine Academy in 1979, this trophy is awarded annually to the CWM who has made a notable contribution to the Institute of Cape Wine Masters (ICWM), wine education or to the wine industry in general.

Since 2019 Steyn has worked tirelessly to promote the Institute and to raise its public profile via networking within the industry. He espoused the Vision 2030 mission to enhance transformation and handled the logistics relating to the Drinking Windows series in 2021. He also steered the Institute through the rough seas of trading during the successive lockdowns of the Covid-19 pandemic and added its voice to the wine industry’s open letter to President Ramaphosa on the alcohol ban.

In 2003, the Cape Wine and Spirit Education Trust granted the Cape Wine Academy the right to award the Cape Wine Master (CWM) qualification and confer the Cape Wine Master’s title, in collaboration with the Institute of Cape Wine Masters.

With the addition of the two new CWMs, the number to attain this elite self-study qualification in the 42-year history of the CWA has now reached 111.

The prestigious group of Cape Wine Masters includes 13 from overseas and one of the three original Cape Wine Masters – Bennie Howard who, together with the late Duimpie Bayly and the late Tony Mossop, were the first to qualify in 1984.

Of the total active membership of the Institute, Western Cape members comprise 72%, Gauteng 22%, KwaZulu-Natal 1%, with overseas members making up 5%. The total membership profile of the CWM is 45% male and 55% female.

The highly topical dissertations of the CWMs adding to the body of South African wine knowledge are available in full on the websites of the CWA, www.capewineacademy.co.za and the Institute of Cape Wine Masters www.icwm.co.za. Bound copies are also available from the CWA library.