2010 Cape Winemakers Guild bursaries awarded
This year's recipients of the Cape Winemakers Guild (CWG) Protégé Bursaries are Chandré Petersen from Paarl and Sifiso Mbhele from Bergville in KwaZulu-Natal. This is the second year of awarding study bursaries to two oenology and viticulture students at Elsenburg College as part of its ongoing Protégé programme to further the development of young aspiring winemakers.
Chandré Petersen
Cultivating, nurturing and empowering promising individuals to become winemakers of excellence, it launched the CWG Protégé Programme in 2006 under the auspices of the Nedbank CWG Trust with the goal of bringing about transformation in the wine industry. The bursaries provide students with financial support during their final year of study, after which they may become eligible for the Guild's three-year internship program. This educational bursary, assisted by Agri-Seta, requires outstanding marks and an excellent aptitude for winemaking.
Protégé's promise
Sifiso Mbhele
Petersen fell in love with wine's “mystical qualities” at an early age, especially reds, thanks to her father and hopes to specialise in Pinotage, Merlot and Chenin Blanc one day. “I grew up in a famous winemaking area, Paarl, and hardly heard of a woman winemaker. It became a huge challenge to me and I am now determined to succeed in the wine industry,” she says.
Mbhele has his sights set on becoming a cellarmaster one day. “In South Africa, winemaking is a scarce skill that offers a lot of opportunities. I want to enlighten the people from where I come from about winemaking and wine itself and as a future winemaker, encourage the youth to make winemaking their career.”
