The intention is to ensure domestic and foreign tourists are treated to world-class wine service in 2010 by raising funds for training through the sale of a top-calibre red wine, branded ‘Fundi' (meaning ‘expert' in Nguni languages), created expressly for this purpose. All profits from the wines, expected to retail locally at R120 each and to sell from licensed outlets for no more than R150 a bottle, will be directed towards the SETA-accredited training of wine waiters.
Su Birch, WOSA CEO, says the plan is to recruit candidates for training from both the hospitality industry, as well as amongst the unemployed and that it has the full backing of hospitality industry body, Fedhasa.
The training module, designed by specialists already successfully training in the hospitality industry across Southern Africa, will give candidates a basic understanding of wine that is relevant to their own life experience. It will allow them to communicate with a fair degree of knowledge about the wines they will be selling in the restaurants, hotels and lodges where they are working or will be seeking jobs, and equip them to articulate to customers what makes South African wines so special.
Birch stresses that while the purpose of the initiative is to ensure World Cup visitors a positive experience when ordering wine, the goal is also to build awareness amongst a new and potentially influential group of ambassadors who can contribute to increased wine sales in the domestic market.
“The project aims to do more than transfer basic wine knowledge. Trainees will be equipped to serve wine with greater competence and confidence. However, we also hope they will make wine their alcoholic beverage of choice and reach a broader base of South Africans and introduce them to wine appreciation.
“Our dream is that amongst this group there will also be some sufficiently inspired to advance their training still further and become sommeliers either by studying through the Cape Wine Academy or by gaining experience or training abroad,” says Birch.
She adds that WOSA is currently exploring the possibility of establishing bursaries for waiters to be trained internationally as sommeliers.
A total of 17,500 6-bottle cases of Fundi wine are to be released for sale locally and abroad with a view to raising R4,5m for the training programme. The labels will feature a sunflower as a symbol of hope, and each bottle will carry a beaded neck tag, produced by informal roadside beaders, who have been commissioned for this purpose.
The wine has been produced by six wineries, each individually identified on the back labels of the bottles. “We invited the industry to submit wines for consideration in an open tender. Submissions were selected in a blind tasting by members of the Cape Winemakers' Guild according to the same exacting standards applied when choosing wines for its annual auction,” explains Birch.
A range of companies is supporting the project by donating their goods, such as glass, corks and labeling, while other service providers are reducing their costs for legal, accounting, banking, marketing and related fees.
Birch confirms that the Winelands District Municipality has already committed R250,000 to the initiative, to be used for training candidates in the Winelands. “Mayor Clarence Johnson's generous move allows us to begin training immediately in the heartland of the wine industry, where visitor expectations for good wine service will, understandably, be at their highest.”
The wines, scheduled to be released into the market early in August, will also be showcased at the biennial wine industry exhibition Cape Wine 2008, to be held in Cape Town in September and attended by the international wine trade. It is hoped that about 20% of the wines will be sold abroad.
