Keize Mumba works as a sommelier for Grub & Vine restaurant and Culture Wine Bar in Cape Town. He produced his first wine, The Harp Red Blend 2017, last December, and is an associate taster for Platter’s South African Wine Guide.
I was born and raised in Zambia, a landlocked country unsuitable for vine-growing, so I grew up drinking beer, only discovering wine when I moved to Cape Town 10 years ago while searching for stories to tell – I used to write screenplays. The stories I learned behind every bottle inspired me to study wine, and to pursue a career as a sommelier.
My favourite wines are those with structure, power, balance, intensity, complexity – and the potential for longevity. And the epitome for me has to be Cabernet Sauvignon. Its small berries (and hence high ratio of pip to pulp) and thick skins enable it to produce wines with high acidity and tannin levels, and deep colour. But one of the grape’s most amazing traits is its ability to produce a quality wine with clear varietal identity, wherever it’s grown and however it’s vinified. Many other grape varieties struggle to achieve this level of consistency.
No wonder then that, even though Cabernet Sauvignon hails from Bordeaux, where it forms the backbone of the wines from the Left Bank communes of Médoc and Graves, it has been planted successfully across the globe. Indeed, it’s the world’s most widely planted wine grape variety. Here in South Africa, great Cabernets
