MEET the woman who makes sure you enjoy that amazing red wine that is sitting on your dinner table!
At 26 years old, Praisy Dlamini is an assistant red-wine maker at Distill, working under the Zonnebloem brand.
Praisy, who is from Empangeni in KZN, says that you never stop learning in this amazing career.
“The process of evaluating wine includes pouring wine, looking, sniffing and tasting – but you are not allowed to get drunk,” she joked.
Her daily job includes planning, choosing and sourcing grapes, fermentation, blending and experimenting throughout the whole winemaking process to make sure that nothing affects the quality of their red wines.
“Zonnebloem reds are bold and expressive but carry themselves with grace and elegance,” she said.
Growing up, she wanted to become a food technologist or chemist.
“I love cooking and thought I was going to be a chef. But I was also fascinated by chemical engineering, so now I’m indirectly doing both because food goes with wine – and there is so much chemistry in making them,” she said.
The Department of Agriculture visited her high school and exposed her to wine- making at Elsenburg Agricultural College in Stellenbosch.
“But after three months of training I went back home, where my mother encouraged me to go back into wine-making when I was only 17 years old,” she said.
She said a unique career like wine- making has helped her become organised and disciplined.
“I had absolutely no wine background growing up because we grew up knowing that drinking is bad for you. But this is an interesting challenge and I am a perfectionist,” she said.
After graduating in 2007 she applied for a place in the Cape Winemakers’ Guild Protege programme, a mentoring initiative for aspirant winemakers from disadvantaged communities.
But her dream does not end here – she is now studying for a diploma in winemaking and later wants to apply to do her masters.
“The field is wide open; I want to become a cellar master myself one day and also go back to teach young people about opportunities in this field,” she said.
She has also started a tasting group to benchmark what she and her peers are creating with other local and also international wines. She is now also mentoring newcomers to wine-making.
Her favourite wine in the Zonnebloem range is the Laureat, a cabernet sauvignon-dominated blend that includes merlot and small quantities of malbec and petit verdot.
“It’s forthright with expressive fruit but refined and very elegant,” she said.
If you are at school and interested in this career, Praisy suggests you aim for good symbols in maths, biology, science and English. “Personally, you must be hard-working, pay attention to detail, keep on learning and be willing to put in extra time at work,” she said.
