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Toit Wessels

Born in Zimbabwe and then educated at SACS in Newlands it was very evident to me when I enrolled at Elsenburg Agricutural College in 1998, that I needed to start at the beginning if I was going to make wine.

A good knowledge of viticulture and soil is essential and to this end I started as viticulturist at Ridgeback Wines in 2000. I have been extremely fortunate to work with some top viticultural consultants in the form of Phil Freese, Paul Wallace and lately Johan Viljoen, but my love for the soil I learned from an ex-Malawian tobacco farmer, Jerry Parker, who was my mentor for a number of years.

Born in Zimbabwe and then educated at SACS in Newlands it was very evident to me when I enrolled at Elsenburg Agricutural College in 1998, that I needed to start at the beginning if I was going to make wine.

A good knowledge of viticulture and soil is essential and to this end I started as viticulturist at Ridgeback Wines in 2000. I have been extremely fortunate to work with some top viticultural consultants in the form of Phil Freese, Paul Wallace and lately Johan Viljoen, but my love for the soil I learned from an ex-Malawian tobacco farmer, Jerry Parker, who was my mentor for a number of years.

Attention to detail and a passion for canopy management saw us winning the Vinpro block competition in 2003 (and again in 2008). I was now starting to gain the viticultural experience needed to move towards winemaking. In 2006 I returned to Elsenburg to complete my diploma in Enology under Loftie Ellis where I was top of my class. 2007 was my first harvest at the Ridgeback cellar.

Since the establishment of Ridgeback Wines, Cathy Marshall and I had been working very closely between the cellar and vineyard. This relationship continues today as she is now our winemaking consultant and her wealth of experience is priceless.

I am privileged to work with the most amazing fruit at Ridgeback and my focus is to preserve the integrity of the grapes, dictated by our soils and produce classic wines known for elegance and consistent high quality.