They are the 25-year-old Brad Gold, Karen Green, Dr Vashti
Galpin, Hymli Krige and De Bruyn Steenkamp.
They join the ranks of this select association which now numbers 60, including three honorary members, since the inception of the qualification in 1984.
The topics of their task reports have added new perspectives to wine research in South Africa, covering issues as diverse as the English wine market (Gold); marketing a wine lifestyle in South Africa (Green); a comparison of legislation in South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, the European Union and the USA relating to winemaking additives and processes, as well as the labelling aspects (Galpin); good corporate citizenship in the South African wine industry (Krige); and global warming - a future perspective on changes to wine style and terroir (Steenkamp).
At 25, Brad Gold, export sales manager for Vinimark,
is the youngest CWM to date. He previously worked for L'Avenir
wine estate, where he learnt every aspect of the business,
including planting, harvesting, winemaking, blending and
international wine marketing.
As a young waitron in a restaurant he signed up for as many wine courses as were
available at the Cape Wine Academy then, and completed the
wine judging certificate through the SA Wine and Spirit Board
and the University of Stellenbosch, as well as the wine
management programme through the universities of Adelaide and
Stellenbosch.
Karen Green has been general manager since 1999 at Wine Direct, a specialist
catalogue-based wine retail company she joined in 1997 on the
sales and client services side as a Catering Management
graduate from the Technikon Witwatersrand Hotel School.
Her current focus is on marketing and public relations, publishing an annual catalogue, designing
and maintaining the company's online buying website, organising
the Wine Direct "Try before you Buy" wine festival,
co-ordinating gourmet dinners and wine tastings, and hosting a
bi-monthly wine interview with Classic FM, as well as looking
after key corporate and individual clients.
Dr Vashti Galpin is an academic at the University of the
Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. She has a doctorate in Computer
Science from the University of Edinburgh, and conducts
research in the areas of theoretical computer science and
computer science education, and lectures in databases and research methods.
She first joined a tasting group in 1991 with academic colleagues and started formal wine
education with the CWA Preliminary course in 1999, attaining
the CWA Diploma in 2001. She is a member of the South
African Society of Wine Tasters and the Free Run Wine Society
and has been involved in setting examinations for the Cape Wine Academy.
Her focus is white wine, in particular Riesling, dry white Bordeaux blends, and unfortified dessert
wines. As a vegetarian, she is also interested in matching wine with vegetarian food.
Hymli Krige is responsible for business strategy at KWV. She is a
Journalism honours graduate from the University of
Stellenbosch and attained an MBA fulltime at the UCT Graduate
School of Business in 1999. She worked for the Department of
Water Affairs and then at the Nico Malan Opera House for Capab
before joining KWV as editor of its staff magazine and
fulfilling numerous other communication roles there until her
current one. She still writes for WineLand and Fynproe magazines.
De Bruyn Steenkamp is Cape Legends International business
manager (Europe), and moves to Distell's London office in June
to manage the Distell wine portfolio in Europe. He joined
Distell in 2001, working in Marketing and later International operations.
He grew up on the family wine farm in Bottelary, studied law at the University of Stellenbosch and
attained a BA LLB, as well as Master of Laws (LLM) in
International Trade law while serving articles at a law firm.
He left an attorney's practice to join Distell in 2001.
The inaugural Van Rijn Award for Excellence in Brandy was made to Hymli Krige for achieving the highest
aggregate marks in both the theory and practical brandy exams.
Nearly 20% of CWM members are based overseas in countries such as Germany, the United Kingdom, the
United States and Australia. (The gender split is 54% male and 46%
female.) South Africa's first Cape Wine Masters were Duimpie
Bayly, Bennie Howard and the late Tony Mossop who passed away last year.
In 2003 the Cape Wine and Spirit Education
Trust granted the Cape Wine Academy the right to award the
Cape Wine Master (CWM) qualification and confer the Cape Wine
Master's title, in collaboration with the Institute of Cape
Wine Masters.
From l to r: Hymli Krige, Brad Gold, Vashti Galpin, Karen Green, De Bruyn Steenkamp
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