Carmen Stevens
Building on the annual Winemaker of the Year award, Diners Club launched a prestigious new competition in 2001.
The focus is on winemakersunder the age of 30 who are making their mark. The category for the 2002 Diners Club Young Winemaker of the Year competition is red wine, with the winner to be announced in November. A hot contender for first prize is Carmen Stevens of Welmoed, a cellar in the Stellenbosch Vineyards portfolio. Leonie Joubert spoke to her.
When the Tukulu 1999 (from Papkuilsfontein) made it into the ABSA Top Ten in 2000, little fanfare accompanied the announcement that the winemaker Carmen Stevens was one of the first women ever to feature in such august company.
Instead, joining Papkuilsfontein typecast her in many minds as the product of an empowerment project and it's something she takes issue with.
"I decided to become a winemaker on my own… and Papkuilsfontein was a good opportunity for me." Simple as that.
The petite 30-year-old hails from the Kraaifontein side of Stellenbosch. She's embarrassed to admit it, but she made her way into wine through the books she read as a teenager.
The first time she set foot in a cellar was when she started her training, aged 22, at Elsenburg College. "It was exactly as described in the novels!"
Stevens worked after matric to raise the funds to study. She also completed a course in agriculture, having been told she required that for acceptance into Elsenburg. Although when she arrived she found it wasn't a prerequisite.
Why was she told she needed agriculture?
"Um, you must remember, this was prior to 1994," she smiles and quietly closes the line of enquiry.
She enrolled in 1993 and found herself amongst the likes of Lizelle Gerber (Avontuur), Bruwer Raats (Delaire), Pierre Wahl (formerly Môreson, now Rijk's), Dewaldt Heyns (Avondale), John Loubser (Steenberg) and David Nieuwoudt (Cederberg).
"There were about five ladies that year… it was the first time there were so many (at once)," she recalls, "and I think the guys thought we wouldn't make it."
Stevens' first winemaking job was as assistant at Stellenbosch Farmer's Winery (now Distell) where she made wines for the Zonnebloem range for five years,taking responsibility for the Papkuilsfontein wines under the Tukulu label in her final two years.
"No one knew the farm or the quality of grapes that would come in… when they did they were excellent! (The Papkuilsfontein vineyards are in the Swartland, the wines are made at Distell in Stellenbosch).
Did she have any inkling that the Tukulu Pinotage would do so well in the ABSA Top Ten competition?
"I knew it stood a chance…" Out of the top 20, it was one of the few which already had a Veritas Gold medal. And Paul Pontallier (directeur of Château Margaux) - who consulted to SFW - tasted the wine and said 'how did you make this!?' I thought I had done something wrong… but he was ecstatic."
Right now she's approaching her second vintage at Welmoed after being headhunted by Stellenbosch Vineyard's cellarmaster Chris Kelly a year ago.
"It was the best decision to come here… I have a lot more freedom to experiment. And Stellenbosch Vineyards has some of the youngest winemakers. Chris is only 32. Liz Augustyn (Helderberg) and Morné van Rooyen (Eersterivier) are recently out of Elsenburg and Stellenbosch.
They are very innovative and travel a lot. We also have Francois de Villiers, an excellent viticulturist, and really have some of the best grapes I've ever seen…"
"You know," she goes on to say, "when I finished at Elsenburg I thought I was going to drown! I was scared… but I never expected to be welcomed into the industry as I have."
Carmen Stevens is not one of those "struggle" stories. Quite the opposite. It's a romantic tale of a young woman doing what she was born to do.
