Cape Winemakers Guild kick starts 2016 with three new Protégés

Three new aspirant winemakers have been given the rare opportunity of honing their skills working side by side with some of the country’s finest masters of their craft as part of the Cape Winemakers Guild Protégé Programme.
This mentorship programme aims at developing and empowering talented young Protégés to become future winemakers and viticulturists of excellence.  
This year’s intake of three new interns brings to 20 the total number of Protégés who have participated in the programme since its inception in 2006. Under the mentorship of members of the Guild and the patronage of the Nedbank Cape Winemakers Guild Development Trust, a world of opportunity in the wine industry will open up for these three graduates of Elsenburg Agricultural College in Stellenbosch.
Peter Vakele of Khayelitsha in Cape Town is spending his first year at Ernie Els Wines under the watchful eye of Louis Strydom, chairman of the Nedbank Cape Winemakers Guild Development Trust. Fellow Protégé Sydney Mello, who comes all the way from Mahwelereng in Limpopo, is working with veteran winemaker, Neil Ellis.
The third new addition to the programme is Maryna Huysamen of Vredendal in the West Coast, who joins David Nieuwoudt at Cederberg Cellars.
For Sydney Mello making wine is a rare opportunity to create something unique: “As a winemaker you get to impart a piece of yourself into the wine. It becomes a reflection of you as a person and is a very personal process, given all the blood, sweat and tears including the long hours we put in as winemakers.”