In order for local hospitality professionals to better understand the wine producing country – South Africa, Institute for Tourism Studies (IFT) held a wine seminar: Wine Producing Countries of the World: South Africa at IFT Wine & Tea Room on 22 July, with focus on some special South Africa wine from the “new kids in the block”. The participants were able to learn the different wine styles and characteristics of the major and sub regions of the country.

Renowned Wine Master Richard Kershaw was invited to be the speaker of the seminar, which attracted 50 local sommeliers and food and beverage managers to participate. A variety of special wines from South Africa were selected for the tasting session, in order to allow the participants to further understand the wine characters of the country.

Richard Kershaw worked as a chef before moving to the wine trade. He got a winemaking diploma and traveled as a cellar-hand to various countries – the United States, Chile, France, Germany, Hungary and finally South Africa in 1999. He became assistant winemaker at Mulderbosch where he then took the opportunity as winemaker at Nelson Estate in Paarl before becoming Cellarmaster at Kanu in 2003 and then as Group Winemaker of both Mulderbosch and Kanu in late 2009. In 2011 he pursued his dream of making his own wine from his farm in Elgin, South Africa. In the same year he passed his International (British) Master of Wine. Master of Wine (MW) is the most prestigious title in the world of wine and there are only 312 MWs in the world till now.

Co-organised by Wines of South Africa, the outline of the seminar includes general introduction of South Africa, grapes varieties, strength and styles of different regions, viticulture, terroir and wine-making techniques and followed by a wine tasting session.