SA’s First Black Woman Winemaker Has Launched Her Own Wine Brand
We love celebrating South Africans doing great things – especially when those great achievements involve wine! Yes indeed, just when you thought the SA wine industry couldn’t get any more interesting, the country’s first black woman winemaker goes ahead and launches her own brand. With four wines in the growing range, Ntsiki Biyela’s Aslina is taking South Africa and the world by storm!
The fledgeling brand was established in partnership with Mika Bulmash’s Wine For The World (a Californian winemaker that helps other countries’ wine break into the US market) and Biyela is proud to say that she is directly involved with everything about the business – from the transportation process and production cellar to the bottling space.
With a degree in viticulture from Stellenbosch University and 13 years of experience in the South African winemaking business, Ntsiki Biyela is now setting her sights on world domination as Aslina Wines gears up to ship 12 000 bottles to the USA, Germany, Taiwan and Ghana this year.
With this aggressive distribution strategy, there is no doubt that Aslina will soon be a household name but Biyela doesn’t plan to stop there and as she says that next year she hopes to increase production to 18 000 bottles to keep up with the demand.