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Winemaking

Ntsiki Biyela is our resident winemaker and joined us in January2004. She is a B Sc. Oenology graduate from StellenboschUniversity and was an SAA bursar after excelling at science inhigh school in Zululand. She is assisted by well known consultant Mark Carmichael-Green of Winning Wines. Mark has worked with well knownbrands such as Zonnebloem and Simonsig in his early career.

Ntsiki Biyela is assisted by well known consultant Mark Carmichael-Green of Winning Wines. Mark has worked with well known brands such as Zonnebloem and Simonsig in his early career and now provides valuable input to small specialist cellars.

Ntsiki Biyela

Nontsikelelo Biyela was born and raised in Kwa-Zulu Natal by her maternal grandmother in Ulundi, a rural village in the heart of the traditional Zulu “homeland”. Her first “brewing” experience was to make traditional beer made from corn and sorghum called “umqombothi” in pots called “izinkamba”. Ntsiki matriculated from Mahlabathini High School in 1996 where she studied science. She had hoped to study engineering or maybe work in a brewery but had no money to study full time.

She started off working as a domestic worker, but her lucky break came when her uncle introduced her to Jabulani Ntshangase, one of the few dark faces in the SA wine industry. Jabulani assisted her in being selected as one of ten black students for a bursary program to study BSc in Oenology at Stellenbosch University in the heart of the Cape Winelands. Her sponsor was the national airline SAA.

The bursary meant a move of over 1,000 miles to a university town, where mainly Afrikaans was spoken. Ntsiki however fitted in well and while studying did practical assignments in the cellar and tasting room at Delheim, a German family owned winery just outside the town of Stellenbosch.

Ntsiki, graduated in 2003 and joined Stellekaya as junior winemaker in 2004 under the eye of Peet le Roux.

Winemaking

Ntsiki took over the winemaking in 2005, and has now completed 4 harvests in the Stellekaya Cellar. Being a small cellar she is involved in all levels of production from the vineyard through to the bottle.

During this time she has been instrumental in expanding the product range by adding a Shiraz varietal wine and a Sangiovese/Cabernet Sauv/Merlot blend named “Hercules”.

As Stellekaya is a red wine specialist, that woods all their wines, Ntsiki makes use of consultants to help with grape, wood and blending selections. A season in St Emilion in Bordeaux France has also helped her improve her skills in dealing with noble red varietals
and wood selection. She is responsible for selecting individual vineyards and growers in Stellenbosch and making sure that each grower crops and hand picks the wines to her exacting standards.

She refers to each wine as “one of her children” that has to be raised and guided before it is ready for the market. Her favourite wine remains the “Cape Cross”, a Pinotage/Cabernet Sauv/Merlot blend that is unique to South Africa and that reflects the Cape “terroir” best by producing a wine with both fruit and character.

Future:

Ntsiki sees herself not getting bored with winemaking. “Although a technical career, it has an artistic side. If I did not win this bursary, I would have studied chemical engineering or an airline pilot, but think I would have become bored very quickly.” She has found a niche she enjoys and wants to develop her expertise to improve her marketing skills.
She is also enjoying working with restaurants at food and wine pairing and would like to improve her food preparation skills and knowledge.

Ntsiki Comments:

“I love movies, especially comedies. My favourite actors are Denzil Washington and Angela Basset.”
“Paperwork is not my strong point!”
“I would love to travel to the great cellars of France and California to improve my knowledge of how these winemakers approach and craft their wines.”
“My best wine tip is to choose your wine first and then your food. You cannot change the taste of your wine, it’s already in the bottle, but you can choose what to eat with it. Make it an adventure.”
“As one of the first black winemakers, I want to be remembered for my wines and not me as a person. But I do not mind being a role model for other black people.”
Stellekaya Winery
082 894 4764