Business
Black South Africans venturing out into wine industry
Ntsiki Biyela, a winemaker, in Stellenbosch, South Africa. – Photo by: Robin Hammond New York Times News Service
A new class of wine makers is emerging in South Africa with black South Africans, many of whom once worked the land, now taking over vineyards in an industry dominated for centuries by white South Africans.
There are only a handful of black-owned vineyards in the US$3 billion a year industry but the number is expected to increase as the government tries to unwind policies under colonial rule and then apartheid that forced black South Africans off the land or into slave-like work at farms.
M’hudi wines is one of the black-owned vineyards that is a recent entrant into the industry, offering several mid-priced options in red and white. M’hudi means “harvester” in Setswana.
