South Africa produces some of the world’s best wines. With a Black population of over 80%, the country’s wine business has been dominated by a few white elites. During apartheid, it was nearly difficult for a Black individual to work as a winemaker. Then came Carmen Stevens, the country’s first Black winemaker after apartheid ended in the mid-1990s.
According to The Buyer, she became interested in winemaking after reading Mills and Boon books in which the majority of the locations contained vineyards, cellars, or wine. She then began to consider the possibility of making wine one day.
She was lucky to have a friend’s uncle working in the lab at Stellenbosch Farmers Winery show her around their facilities and inspire her to become a winemaker by enrolling at Elsenburg College or Stellenbosch University before taking measures to accomplish her ambition of creating wine.
Money became an impediment to pursuing a university education in Elsenburg, where she was accepted to study winemaking. She hawked in Cape Town and worked at a factory to make ends meet.
She eventually moved to Elsenburg once apartheid ended, but she was initially refused since she couldn’t prove herself through military duty and also had no agricultural background.
She was one of just two African pupils in her first year at Elsenburg. She suffered bigotry and clashes from classmates and instructors but graduated in 1995, becoming South Africa’s first qualified Black winemaker.
Her winemaking career began in the Distell cellars, followed by a position as an assistant winemaker for Zonnebloem white wines. Stevens was also offered the post of winemaker for the new Tukula brand, a “Black empowerment project of Distell, and the first such wine endeavor”, according to The Buyer.
She applied to Zonnebloem for the firm’s top post after a fast-rising career in the wine sector, but she was turned down on the grounds that she lacked the necessary abilities. Her breakthrough came when she was offered the position of winemaker at Naked Wines. She also raised $150,000 in just eight hours to launch her own label.
Carmen Stevens Wines, which debuted in 2011, is now one of the best-selling brands in both the United Kingdom and the United States. She was later named winemaker of the year by Naked Wines, with a prize of R6 million ($328,000) to be spent on wine initiatives.