Carmen Stevens has turned her childhood dream into a winemaking legacy. And as the first black female winemaker, she has permanently reshaped the South African wine scene.
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00:01Why do some of South Africa's best wines come from this winemaker?
00:09Our wines can truly stand up against any wine in the world.
00:14Oh, that's beautiful. That's so much depth.
00:17It's more milky, more smooth.
00:21And then the sweet appeal here.
00:26Winning 43 awards in just three years,
00:30Carmen Stevens' attention to detail has won her acclaim.
00:35What's important about a winemaker being in the vineyard is when to pick,
00:40because you need to taste when that berry is at its optimal ripeness.
00:45And you taste what you want in your final wine.
00:48That's almost like putting your personal fingerprint on your wines.
00:52And very important.
00:54And her fingerprint has been the top of the wine business for 30 years.
01:00The biggest award is surely the award that I got in 2022 for visionary leadership.
01:09That same award was given to Nelson Mandela in 2003.
01:13Even though everything appeared to be against her becoming a winemaker when she started out.
01:21I matriculated four years before we got our freedom.
01:25Our freedom of choice.
01:27Our freedom of movement.
01:28Our freedom to decide for ourselves.
01:29It took four attempts before she was admitted to the only agricultural college which trains winemakers.
01:44Black winemakers were simply unheard of.
01:47In 1995, when I qualified, I was the first black person to qualify as a winemaker before nobody was allowed to study winemaking.
02:00It's very rare to have this color this early in the fermentation.
02:061995 was just one year after Nelson Mandela became president.
02:12But racism was still very much alive.
02:14The real practical implication of being the first is that nobody was used to having firstly a woman and a black woman in a cellar space.
02:27It seemed that because she's black, her dream would be shattered.
02:30This international taster tastes all the wines in the portfolio of the company.
02:37And he comes to me, asks me, how did you make this wine?
02:39And I'm like, did I do something else?
02:41No, no, this is amazing.
02:42Tell me, how did you make this wine?
02:45And that made the rest of the team wanted to taste the wine.
02:51We bottled it and that was my first major accolade.
02:56Because in South Africa, to be in the top ten pinotage makers is huge.
03:02Especially not coming from the same background as the other wine makers.
03:11Possibly, that was her advantage.
03:14Growing up in Belhar on the Cape Flats and surviving gangs and drug dealers, Carmen is resilient.
03:20I had sat on the plane next to this black gentleman and he started talking to me, asked me what I'm doing.
03:29And I was like, I'm a wine maker, I'm going to California for an internship.
03:32And he was like, I always wanted to own a wine farm.
03:35And you know, in the back of my mind is, oh God, wishful thinking.
03:39What happened next turned her life upside down.
03:43Two months later, I was busy bottling wines.
03:47And this man walks in, he looks familiar and he goes, hi Carmen.
03:50And I'm like, hello.
03:51And he goes, I'm just here to tell you that we just signed the very first black owned wine venture in South Africa.
03:59And guess what? We want you to be the wine maker for the project.
04:01If that did not come along, I'll probably never have had that opportunity to showcase what I'm, what I can do.
04:09The foundations for her incomparable career were laid.
04:16I got this amazing platform in the UK when this guy offered me, you can start your own brand.
04:23In 2011, she not only established her own brand, but also a nonprofit organization.
04:33My mother was a factory worker where I came from.
04:36I knew there was a need for food in the community.
04:39Now in 103 schools, in 37 communities, they feed over 25,000 children every school day.
04:47Kids coming to school because they know there's food, it's a safe haven.
04:55It enables them to learn, to concentrate.
04:59And my hope is that this opportunity that's given to them will take them out of their state into something greater.
05:06With her award-winning wines, South Africa's first black wine maker, Carmen Stevens, is not only making a difference on the tables of wine lovers worldwide, but also in the lives of this community.