BRAVING THE VINES: WINEMAKER NTSIKI BIYELA' S TALE OF COURAGE

Face your fears. Step out of your comfort zone. Seize the day! But how? Winemaker Ntsiki Biyela shares her unique tale of courage.

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It’s been just over 20 years of winemaking for Ntsiki Biyela of Aslina Wines in Stellenbosch. Not only have her wines won numerous awards, but she has been recognised for her instrumental role, as the first black female winemaker, in transforming SA’s wine industry,

When she’s not creating stellar wines, she is mentoring young winemakers at the Pinotage Youth Development Academy. After all, she was once one of them.

Ntsiki, who grew up in the KZN village of Mahlabathini, a world away from the Cape winelands, earned a living as a domestic worker for a year before she was awarded a scholarship to study winemaking at Stellenbosch University in 1999.

Lessons were in Afrikaans, which was challenging (she had to rely on language tutors to help her), and she had never tasted wine before setting foot on campus. But she knew that studying would change her life, and she forged ahead.

WHY ARE YOU SO PASSIONATE ABOUT WINEMAKING?
Making wine is an act of faith. For years, I wanted to make a skin-fermented Chenin Blanc.
I started making that wine in 2004 in my mind... I knew exactly what I wanted it to taste like. Only in 2021 did I have the chance to make it a reality. I bought five tons of grapes and started experimenting. When I thought of the risks, I reminded myself that I had been tasting and drinking this wine in my mind for years. Thankfully, it turned out exactly like I had envisioned. It was a gift in a bottle – I didn’t think in a scientific way, but with my heart.

WHAT KEEPS YOU GOING?
Life asks me to be brave every day. For example, I travel a lot on my own for work. It
seems fun and glamorous, but it’s exhausting, tense and frightening to be in a totally foreign place where you know no one. I push through because I know it’s worth it and because I believe every day is a gift. It’s a blessing, but it takes courage to face it because life often has other plans for you.

WHO ARE YOU MOST INSPIRED BY DAILY?
When I go home to my village, I see courageous people everywhere. I was raised by
my grandmother, who was a courageous woman. She didn’t wait around for someone to help her, and she knew how to work with a little and make it into a lot. She was a woman of faith – she had faith that things would work. She did everything with love, so she accepted whatever the outcome was because she knew she had done the best she could. I always draw strength and lessons from those people.

WHAT’S THE BEST LIFE LESSON YOU’VE LEARNED THUS FAR?
My village taught me that you’ve got to trust. When I started studying, my older sister cautioned that I will get the degree but it won’t necessarily mean I will end up as a winemaker. She told me to not be disappointed if that happens, because the degree is a tool. That was really hard for me to hear back then. I think it takes courage, trusting yourself and being easy on yourself to follow through, even though you don’t know what is going to happen.

Words: Christi Nortier

Photography: Instagram, Supplied