CWG awards first bursaries for protégé programme

CWG bursary winners, Sacha Claassen and Tamsyn Jeftha.

The first recipients of the Cape Winemakers Guild Protégé Bursaries are Tamsyn Jeftha, who hopes to graduate from the University of Stellenbosch this year, and Sacha Claassen, who is in her final year at Elsenburg Agricultural College. Both students have received bursaries to the value of R30,000 to assist them with their studies.

Once they have graduated, both aspirant winemakers will be interviewed for the Cape Winemakers Guild Protégé Programme, which offers students from previously disadvantaged communities a three year internship during which time they will have the opportunity to learn from, and work alongside some of the country's best winemakers who are members of the Guild.

The two ambitious graduates are set on desirable careers in the well-established SA wine industry and hope to become assets not only to their communities but to the wine industry as a whole.

“As a winemaker, I would like to become a great role model for my community and be involved in all the processes, which include primary production, cellar preparation, secondary production, final blending, as well as assisting the marketing department in developing quality wines for different price points with great commercial value and offering value for money to the consumer,” said Jeftha, who hails from Strand.

Diversity in the wine industry is not only a social thing as Claassen, who grew up in Oudtshoorn, points out: “Over the next 10 years I want to be a very successful winemaker who has been experimenting with a variety of methods of winemaking and different types of wine to come up with something new and exciting that hopefully I can put my own label on.”

The bursary is awarded with the assistance of AGRI-Seta, which requires outstanding marks, an excellent aptitude for winemaking, and is the first step toward the Guild's Protégé Programme where graduates are able to hone their skills under world-class mentorship both locally and abroad. In time the successful interns may be invited to join the Cape Winemakers Guild itself should they consistently produce award winning wines.

The Cape Winemakers Guild Protégé Programme was launched under the auspices of the Nedbank Cape Winemakers Guild Trust in 2006 with the goal of bringing about transformation in the wine industry through cultivating and nurturing winemakers from previously disadvantaged groups to become winemakers of excellence.

The programme comprises a three-year internship and only final third and fourth year students from previously disadvantaged backgrounds who have studied Viticulture and Oenology at either the University of Stellenbosch or Elsenburg Agricultural College can apply for the programme.

For more information, see: www.capewinemakersguild.com