SUGAR & SPICE AND SOMMELIER LIFE

She sipped her way into a whole new world... She baked her way out of a pandemic funk. Caroline Ngwenya and Andriette Georgiou are proving there's more than one recipe for success.

- Eleanor le Riche

Majesty Wines

Caroline Ngwenya

Some people fall in love over candlelight and string quartets.

Caroline fell in love with a wine label and a jaw-dropping R4 000 price tag. Now, years later, she is a certified sommelier and the founder of The High Cellar and The Black Wine Renaissance Expo, and she has her own wine label.

What drew you to wine, and how did that initial interest spark your career?

I was studying communications and playing cricket on a scholarship. Like most students, I needed extra income, so I started waitressing. One night at the restaurant, I came across a wine on the menu, Mvemve Raats MR de Compostella, priced at R4000. I'd never seen wine cost that much before and I couldn't stop wondering, what makes a bottle worth that kind of money?

That question led me down a rabbit hole of Google searches, articles, YouTube videos... you name it. I became fascinated with tasting notes, regions, vintages. I wanted to understand the language and logic of wine. So I enrolled at the Cape Wine Academy while still studying in Midrand.

How did you start your own wine label? And how does it reflect who you are?

From the beginning I knew I wanted my own wine label. But back then I thought that meant owning land, a cellar, the works.

It seemed impossible.

Then I moved to Cape Town and discovered the world of negociants — people who make wine without owning vineyards. That changed everything. I realised I could do this. I named my brand Majesty Wines in honour of my grandmother, who raised me. She was majestic — not in the queen on a throne way, but in the everyday grace, grit and wisdom way. Majesty Wines is a tribute to women like her; women who do the impossible, who show up for life again and again.

Tell us more about your wines.