KHOI Meets French: Award-Winning Winemaker's Rise To The Top

- Jeandre Du Preez

In 2000, Berene Damons started working as an au pair for the four children of winemaker, Anthony Hamilton Russell, of Hamilton Russell Vineyards in the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley. This job lasted a mere month, however. Anthony saw her potential and invited her to assist the company’s marketing manager. Over the next year, Berene moved swiftly through the ranks to an administrative position involving the export and labelling of the Hamilton Russell Vineyards’ wines.

“During this time in the office, I experienced many administrative aspects of the business, but my curiosity started to turn towards the delicate process from grape to bottle,” recalls Berene. “Where I come from, a small village called Tesselaarsdal in the Overberg, we didn’t really know wine or understand why it can be so expensive. I wanted to learn more and try to understand why people are willing to pay so much for wine.”

She enrolled at the Cape Wine Academy for introductory courses on wine, wine origins, and how to identify and compare wines through taste, sight and smell. She found it all fascinating and volunteered to assist during the harvest of 2002.

“After my first harvest, I helped out every year, while carefully observing the winemakers and learning from them,” she says.

BECOMING A WINEMAKER

 In November 2014, Berene was offered the opportunity to produce her own wine.

“Anthony assisted me with the start-up costs, while I had to secure my own grapes and register the business,” she explains.