Introduction
When people think of great wine, their minds usually drift to the hills of Burgundy or the sun-baked valleys of Napa. For a long time, African winemakers simply weren't part of that picture; the talent wasn't there, but the doors weren't open.
That has been changing. From the Cape Winelands to the cool coastal valleys of the Western Cape, African winemakers are crafting wines that are earning serious praise on the global stage. Some of them grew up in worlds where wine was completely foreign. Some were turned away, but they pressed on anyway.
These are 7 of those winemakers, and their stories are every bit as rich as the wines they make.
Ntsiki Biyela
Ntsiki Biyela grew up in Mahlabathini, a small rural village in KwaZulu-Natal, in a world where wine was completely foreign. After finishing high school in 1996, she spent a year working as a domestic worker before she was awarded a scholarship through South African Airways to study winemaking at the prestigious University of Stellenbosch.
She then joined Stellekaya, a boutique winery in Stellenbosch, becoming the first Black female winemaker in South Africa's history. In 2016, she launched Aslina Wines, named after her late grandmother, and began crafting her wines using sustainable and fair-trade practices.
Ntsiki has won the South African Woman Winemaker of the Year award (2009), consulted at Château d'Arsac in Bordeaux, and collaborated with Napa Valley winemaker Helen Keplinger. She also sits on the board of the Pinotage Youth Development Academy, giving back to the next generation.
Carmen Stevens
Carmen Stevens is South Africa's very first qualified Black winemaker, and she graduated in 1995 at a time when the wine industry was still largely closed to people who looked like her.
Carmen grew up on the Cape Flats, near Cape Town. She dreamed of making wine, and applied to Elsenburg Agricultural Training Institute in 1990, but was told that only white students were accepted. She applied again in 1991, and was rejected again. Finally, she was accepted in 1992, and graduated as South Africa's first qualified Black winemaker in 1995.
She picked up an International Decanter Trophy while working at Amani in Stellenbosch, won the 2015 Winemaker of the Year award in California, and was named Winemaker of the Decade in the UK in 2018 by Naked Wines. In 2011, she launched Carmen Stevens Wines, the first 100% Black-owned winery in South Africa, based in Stellenbosch. Through the Carmen Stevens NPO, her wines also help fund breakfasts and lunches for learners in schools in the Western Cape, and was named South Africa's Entrepreneur of the Year in both 2017 and 2019.
Kiara Scott-Farmer
In November 2024, a 32-year-old woman from Mitchells Plain on the Cape Flats walked away with the most prestigious individual award in South African wine; the Diners Club Winemaker of the Year. Her name is Kiara Scott-Farmer, and she became not only the youngest woman but also the first woman of colour to win the award in its 44-year history.
Kiara grew up on the Cape Flats and studied at the Elsenburg Agricultural Training Institute in Stellenbosch, and was then selected for the Cape Winemakers Guild (CWG) Protégé Programme, one of the most competitive mentorship programmes in South African wine.
She later joined Brookdale Estate in Paarl in 2019, at just 26 years old, becoming the youngest female head winemaker in South Africa at the time. And in early 2025, she took on a new challenge, becoming Head Winemaker at the historic Hazendal Wine Estate in Stellenbosch.
The Rangaka Family/ M’hudi Wines
In 2003, Malmsey Rangaka, a clinical psychologist, convinced her husband Diale, a professor and university administrator, to buy a farm in Stellenbosch, but they only realised after buying it that the farm had vineyards. The farm became the first Black-owned, family-managed wine farm in South Africa.
With guidance from their generous neighbours at Villiera Wines, M'hudi Wines released its first vintage in 2005, and since then, their wines have found their way into supermarkets in the UK and into wine lovers' homes across the world.
Malmsey, the winery’s CEO, won the 2010 Emerging Tourism Entrepreneur of the Year Award, and the family's story of courage and conviction has turned them into ambassadors for what African wine can be.
Tariro Masayiti
Tariro Masayiti didn't plan to make history. Growing up in Marondera, Zimbabwe, he studied biochemistry and worked holiday shifts at Mukuyu Winery. When the farm manager quit, he stepped in to manage the place, and tourists visiting the winery tipped him off about a winemaking course at Stellenbosch University. He applied, got a scholarship, and after four years of study became the first Black student to graduate in Viticulture and Oenology at Stellenbosch. Not long after, he got an offer to join Distell as an assistant winemaker for Fleur du Cap.
He spent six years as Senior Winemaker for white wines at Nederburg, before joining the iconic KWV for red wine experience. In 2013, he was appointed Viticulturist and Winemaker at Springfontein Wine Estate in Walker Bay, and served as chairman of the Stanford Wine Route before leaving in 2022.
Nongcebo "Noni" Langa
Noni grew up in Pietermaritzburg in a household where wine simply wasn't a thing. A Department of Agriculture bursary at school opened the door for her, and when she heard that winemaking could take her around the world, she was sold.
She earned her MSc in Oenology at Stellenbosch University, worked vintages in Sonoma and Germany, and joined Delheim Estate in Stellenbosch as an intern in 2019. She was promoted to winemaker in 2022. In 2023, she won the Diners Club Young Winemaker of the Year Award for her Delheim Gewürztraminer 2022.
Today she leads wine production at Delheim, one of Stellenbosch's most beloved estates. Back home in Pietermaritzburg, wine has quietly become the drink of choice at family gatherings, with Noni as the unofficial family sommelier.
Ifeoma C. Onyia
Born in Nigeria and raised in London before settling in the D.C. region, Ifeoma opened Clyopatra Winery and Vineyard in Laurel, Maryland in 2023, the first African immigrant-owned winery in the United States.
Her love of wine traces all the way back to watching palm wine tappers in Nigeria as a child, and it was the loss of her two brothers between 2012 and 2020 that ultimately drove her to pursue the dream. She planted her vines during the pandemic and has since broken ground on an expansion that will make Clyopatra the largest Black-owned winery vineyard on the East Coast.
She has received a Lifetime Achievement Award from President Biden for her contributions to entrepreneurship and community development, and through the House of Clyopatra Foundation, she supports education and empowerment programmes.
Conclusion
Every single person on this list started somewhere unexpected. A rural village in KwaZulu-Natal. A hilltop town in Nigeria. The Cape Flats. Soweto. Marondera. Their wines are on shelves in London, Tokyo, New York, and Cape Town, and their names are on countless awards.
That's what makes African wine so worth discovering right now. Not just the flavour profiles or the terroir, as wonderful as those are. But the stories, the people behind them and their extraordinary determination.
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