Cape Town - You don’t have to own a wine estate, or even live in the winelands to be a winemaker. You could become a garagiste, a term used for amateur, small-scale winemakers.
As the name suggests, garages can be converted into mini wine cellars. So it could be done by those living in suburbia.
Professor Wessel du Toit of Stellenbosch University’s Viticulture and Oenology department, will for the first time present an advanced garagiste course in June. This is aimed at existing small-scale winemakers.
Areas of focus will include the mistakes that can be made during the wine-making process, the ripening of grapes, the use of wood and how to make different styles of wine. An entry level short course will be presented in September.
Du Toit – dubbed the father of garagiste – taught the entry level course for the first time in 2005.
Since then, many a garage has been converted into a mini wine cellar. Among Du Toit’s students have been the owners of the first wine range to be bottled in KwaZulu-Natal, international participants and even an Olympic medal winner.
Du Toit came up with the idea for the entry level practical course when a Joburg businesswoman called him for advice on how to make her own wine. She was not willing to leave her day job to follow the department’s three-year course.
Since then he has been teaching his students the fundamentals of the winemaking process: from the harvesting of ripe grapes, the addition of yeast to aid the ageing process, to the bottling of the end product.
Those interested can contact Du Toit at [email protected] or 021 808 2022.