If you’re not exposed to something – a field of study or career option, for instance – while you might possess all the talent in the world to thrive and flourish doing this something, your talent will die on the vine. Four little words that could have been written for this piece. 

By contrast, let me share a story. One that speaks to the point above and what happens when, by some fickle finger of fate, you chance upon something you might never have known about. Which in turn allows you to nurture and grow a talent you never knew you had. Which in this case, propels you to the top of the world in your field.

Ntsiki Biyela, winemaker. Follow her on Instagram. I have, since before I first wrote about her back in 2017. 

Biyela’s current chapter, and they grow more remarkable as she continues to write the pages, is in the process of unfolding. 

So. Here are the bones. In brief, she grew up in deep rural Zululand. In a village far from the lush winelands of the Western Cape. A village with no electricity, where women collect water from the river and chickens scratch in the dust. Where Biyela, along with the other children, would tend to the cattle barefoot. 

A teacher at her school spotted that she was bright and hard-working. Encouraged her to apply for a scholarship. Which Biyela was offered. To study viticulture and oenology at Stellenbosch University. She had never tasted wine. She had never heard of viticulture or oenology or the possibility of a career in wine. She was isiZulu-speaking, with some English. Classes at Stellenbosch were in Afrikaans.

But Biyela saw the scholarship as “an opportunity to change my life”.

You can read more about Biyela – South Africa’s first black woman winemaker – and her Aslina wines for yourself. 

She has won many accolades. The most recent, just announced: Biyela is one of five finalists, three of them men – not surprisingly, from California – shortlisted for the title Winemaker of the Year by Wine Enthusiast magazine. 

How easily might she never have swirled and savoured a glass of wine, let alone actualised a talent that has propelled her to the top of her field internationally.

BLACC co-founder and newly elected chairman Aubrey Ngcungama. (Photo: Claire Gunn)

“The Black Cellar Club – BLACC – was founded on the terrace of The Stack restaurant (sadly another a Covid-19 casualty) with 10 members in 2016,” says the not-for-profit club’s newly elected chairman, Aubrey Ngcungama. “We now number in the hundreds and span three provinces and have many international members.

“The club has grown from being a handful of sommeliers to an institution recognised as an important link between producers of wine and the consumer … more importantly, the black consumer.” 

“BLACC is more focused on providing experiential opportunities to waiters and barmen so they are more confident with guests,” says Ian Manley. “The sommeliers who are members already have these skills and are seen as people to look up to and learn from.” In these days of Covid-19 with the multitude of job losses in the hospitality industry, club members are also networking and sharing leads around job opportunities. 

BLACC launched as an initiative of Vula Afrika, a Cape Town-based hospitality, international event curation and brand management company of which Ngcungama and Manley are co-founders and two of three directors. 

“BLACC was founded by the Vula Afrika team after recognising the great rise of the black sommelier and wine stewards in South Africa over the past few years,” says Ngcungama. “Its establishment was motivated by the need to connect the up-and-coming black sommeliers and wine stewards who had found their voice in the industry. More importantly, it was crucial that we opened up the doors so those waiters who have no clue about wine could be introduced to the producers via our club. 

“Out of this, BLACC Mondays were born. Here, wine producers (including winemakers – where Biyela would fit into the BLACC picture) met the people responsible for selling their wines.

“This provided an opportunity to educate and motivate the teams in restaurants, empowering them to talk about wine more confidently. To this end, BLACC is for everyone with an interest in South African wines and spirits; not an exclusive group of wine fundis.”

Wine buffs Danny Magoda and Amos Sobashe with Aubrey Ngcungama at a BLACC tasting. (Photo: Claire Gunn)

Our recent TGIFood Tale of Three Somms article focused on three top Durban sommeliers. Winston Matthews from 9th Avenue Waterside who is BLACC’s elected KZN representative; Zwai Gumede, who pre-Covid-19 was at Chef’s Table; and at The Oyster Box, Job Jovo, who swapped economics for sommeliering and is well on his way to being an international Master of Wine. All BLACC members. All fickle-finger-of-fate, innate talent actualised, success stories. Role models in the BLACC context for waiters, barmen and others in the hospitality industry. Role models and inspiration in the broader context for anyone with limiting beliefs. 

Ngcungama’s story is similar, but different. 

I was living in California so missed BBC Entertainment’s first season of Come Dine With Me SA back in 2012, where via Google I learned that Ngcungama became a household name, face and favourite, saluted for his wine appreciation (apparently quaffing impressive quantities of it) in combination with his culinary skills, charisma and more. 

Ngcungama, like Biyela, was born in a village in rural KZN. His biological mom was employed as a domestic worker by a family that owns a hotel chain in the UK. They adopted him, sent him to Michaelhouse and – well, here he is, co-founding BLACC and being an activist for empowerment. 

“My family business is in the hospitality industry so I’ve grown up with good food and the hotel world is what was always the centre of family life. My father was a great cook and he nurtured and encouraged my interest in food from an early age. With great food one needs great wines, so it was a natural progression for me,” he says.

And so he pops up doing all manner of things on Google from singing opera (with bubbly) to giving an interview as brand ambassador for One&Only and sharing cooking tips via his Dinner with Aubs YouTube series (on Instagram as @dinnerwithaubs).  

In September 2020 he left Arambrook Boutique Hotel in Cape Town where he was GM. “I intended to stay within the hospitality industry for as long as possible. Now, one of the immediate tasks is to complete my cookery book, which has been neglected for a few years. I will also be revisiting the online space for some of my interests.”

With reference to BLACC and times of Covid-19, he says, “As we were all confined to our homes for many months and we watched the industry suffer great hardships, it was incredible that Tuanni was able to keep the educational aspect of wine alive through online sessions. This has benefited a great number of our members.” 

BLACC deductive tasting via Zoom with Tuanni Price. (Photo: Wanda Hennig)

Thanks to Zoom, BLACC and Tuanni Price, an exuberant presence from Los Angeles, as effervescent as the sparkliest bubbly, during Covid-19 I found myself tasting wine with focus, first from my limited stash then when the ban on alcohol sales was lifted, varietals I might not have thought to try; making new friends around wine (social connection while physical distancing); and thinking about wine in “deductive” ways in the good – sometimes hilarious – company of a group, many of whom were (still are as our Zoom tastings continue) formally studying wine.

During the first three weeks of heavy lockdown and through the time alcohol sales were forbidden and our wine industry sent reeling, I noticed Master Class invites arriving via my BLACC KZN WhatsApp group. (I am a long-time media member.)

Looking at BLACC on Instagram, I see a 25 March invite to a weekly online wine study group “to stay on top of your game during Covid-19 lockdown”. And on March 30 an announcement that each week an industry professional would host a Master Class on Zoom and Facebook Live, starting with Jeffrey Bezuidenhout, vineyard manager at boutique Beau Constantia. 

“It started with me reaching out to winemakers and others in the industry to share their knowledge. Soon people in the industry both in South Africa and internationally were reaching out to me, offering to share their knowledge via online classes,” says Tuanni Price.  

Tuanni Price, who spearheaded BLACC’s online Covid-19 education initiative. (Photo: Facebook)

Price has her own circuitous wine story. “Growing up in LA my mom occasionally bought jug wine for sangria but wine was not part of the culture like, say, in Italy or France.” 

At college in Louisiana (where she studied political science), “I drank strawberry-flavoured wine and white zin.” 

Back in LA post-college, she got a job in the accounting department at an upscale Beverly Hills hotel. She was in her late 20s when her manager gifted her with a comped dinner at the hotel’s restaurant. She invited her mom and twin sister. And on being seated, was presented with a wine list by the sommelier. “I realised I was expected to order the wine and had no clue what to do.” 

She “stumbled” through. Chose something “not too pricey”. He bought a bottle and poured a thimble-full. She waited for him to top her up. “Then my mom nudged me. She whispered that I should taste it and say I liked it.”

It was her first experience sipping a quality wine and she was intrigued. Curious. 

To learn more, she started an informal wine tasting club with a group of girlfriends. “We took turns to choose a wine and provide a meal to go with it. We’d research the wine and share what we’d learned. Explain why we’d chosen to pair it as we had.” 

BLACC members Shelter Mupunga, left, a waitress at erstwhile The Stack and right, Tendai Marisa, sommelier at Indochine, Delaire Graff. (Photo: Claire Gunn)

So, for example, “One time I made chicken cordon bleu, classic French, and served it with a White Burgundy (Chardonnay). Researching and explaining was our way of learning. We had our club for about 14 years. 

“Then I started doing something similar as a business venture. Inviting people to my place and telling them about wine.” 

From there she took the concept to art galleries and restaurants. Began taking people on wine tours around Santa Barbara county. 

Fast forward to 2020, she’d been bringing groups from the US to tour the Cape winelands for a couple of years through her business, Zuri Wine Tasting, an “international wine lifestyle company curating experiences for customers in both Los Angeles and Cape Town”. 

A BLACC Monday pre-Covid-19 group outing with co-founders Ian Manley and Aubrey Ngcungama, back right. (Photo: Claire Gunn)

Price had also by then, among other things, been offering wine experiences via Airbnb, and was experimenting with living six months in Cape Town, six months in LA. 

Backtrack to 2018, which is when she learned about BLACC. 

“I met someone who was going on a wine outing with BLACC. They said I was welcome to go along. We met winemakers and there were tastings. I started getting invites and going regularly as it was such a great way to learn about the wines and the wine industry through the people making the wines and directly involved.”

BLACC had no social media presence. Price offered to help out. Volunteer basis. 

She continued doing BLACC social media when back in LA running her wine-focused business. 

“They would send me the pictures to post, whatever else needed to be done.” 

Come 2020, Covid-19 came and kept her in Cape Town beyond the anticipated six months. She added “education” to her social media volunteer portfolio with BLACC. As she is studying for her Level 2 certificate through the Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSet), this worked for her; it worked for BLACC; and – fickle finger of fate? – it worked for me.

Late lunch at a pre-Covid-19 BLACC Monday farm and cellar tour and tasting. (Photo: Claire Gunn)

Talking volunteering, Denzel Swarts, Simonsig’s brand ambassador for coastal South Africa, was recognised just this month (October) by the Africa Brand Summit as the country’s top “community builder influencer” for the work he is doing in his wine-focused community through his Son of The Soil Leadership Foundation. 

The focus of the foundation he established is on coaching and mentoring young people so that they can discover their true potential. 

Swarts’ grandfather and his father were both farmworkers at Simonsig. Through determination and “as a farm child who envisioned a different future and received support and encouragement”, he has become “the first third-generation farm child” to produce his own wine brand (called Son of Soil, which he hopes will fund his foundation) and to hold a senior management position.  

He joined BLACC “because I saw it as a platform for me to come into contact with like-minded people keen to promote South African wines and to share knowledge to create opportunities”.

The future of BLACC, he says, “is for us to become agents and mentors to younger entrants into the hospitality field”. Similar to what he’s doing through his foundation and through other outreach work.

Swarts is committed to the spirit of ubuntu: his interpretation of it. “The word ubuntu is loved in South Africa. ‘I am a person because of other people.’ It is a nice word and concept, but we don’t take it seriously.”

For Swarts, ubuntu speaks to the knowledge and wisdom he has accumulated. “The word informs me that what I have learned has come from others. I see the spirit of ubuntu as a call to action: to share the knowledge we have with others. To share my knowledge to create a better future for other people.”

Influencer, BLACC member and Simonsig brand ambassador, Denzel Swarts. (Photo: Supplied)

In the winelands where he lives, he says, gangsterism and drug abuse are rife. His leadership foundation focus is to find young leaders and mentor them. To curb the high drop-out rate of teens who leave school at Grade 10; mentor them through to Grade 12; assist with tutors, social and psychosocial skills and more. 

“I don’t believe in handouts. What we need to give our youth is handups. An attitude of ‘I’m taking you with me. You can shadow me’.”

There is a great deal of political correctness and posturing around affirmative action and assisting the previously disadvantaged, he says. “Doing what is prescribed when we need to go beyond filling out a scorecard.”

“We don’t just need waiters and representation on the restaurant floors and in the tasting rooms and entry-level somms. Yes, it’s good to help people with the basics. But – what then? We need a holistic approach.” One grounded in education and leadership development. 

“We need to address the gaps all the way through so we see more black viticulturists, CEOs, and winemakers.”

BLACC with its extensive network of members, success stories, role models and networking and collaboration is playing its part. 

Meanwhile, as a role model of wine excellence and inspiration, Ntsiki Biyela with her Aslina Wines is showing what it’s like to thrive on the vine. DM/TGIFood

Wanda Hennig is a food and travel writer based in Durban. She has worked on newspapers and magazines in South Africa and the San Francisco Bay Area and freelanced extensively. She is author of Cravings: A Zen-inspired memoir…. Reach her via her website wandahennig.com