Words by Russel Wasserfall
BROOKDALE WINES
Winemaking is a craft traditionally dominated by men, especially the Western Cape wine region of South Africa. However, a growing number of women are entering the field, driving change and making exceptional New World wines. One of the most notable of these ‘upstarts’ is a promising young winemaker called Kiara Scott.
At just 26, in 2019, Kiara Scott became the youngest woman ever to be appointed as head winemaker to a Western Cape wine estate.
Heading up the cellar at Brookdale Estate, Scott has earned a number of accolades for her wines and although relatively new to the craft, she has bevy of admirers among the established vintners and traders in the region. Her humble beginnings give no indication of the path her career would follow, and this is perhaps why her approach to winemaking is causing such a stir and gathering a brace of enthusiastic followers in the ‘game’.
Scott grew up a working class area of Cape Town call Mitchell’s Plain. The streets of this neighbourhood with its barren playgrounds and huddled houses plagued by unemployment, gangsterism and drugs, are an unlikely creche for a refined wine palate.
A variety of techniques, methods and containers is used to extract the very best from the fruit of Brookdale Estate’s vineyards.
“When I was younger, I thought wine came in cartons from the supermarket,” she remembers. “I knew nothing about it, except that it made people crazy on weekends. Some of my extended family enjoyed wine though, and I became curious about it.”
A very practical, can-do person, Scott thought she might be suited to farming as a career. When she was accepted to Elsenberg, the agricultural college in Stellenbosch, the vintner’s course caught her attention. Considering that most of her fellow students were men, many of whom came from generations of wine farmers in the region, this must have been daunting for a young woman from the rough-and-tumble world of the Cape Flats.
Expressing the terroir of the region, Brookdale produces New World wines from the lesser-known wine varietals of Portugal, Italy and France.
Despite this Scott excelled, graduating from Elsenburg with a diploma in Viticulture and Oenology before being selected for the prestigious Cape Winemakers Guild (CWG) Protégé Programme. After a stage in France’s Rhone Valley and internships with leading local winemakers, renowned winemaker and cellar master Duncan Savage invited her to work with him at Savage Wines. She was his assistant winemaker when he was asked to consult at Brookdale Estate near Paarl in the Boland region.
Together, Duncan and Kiara managed the vine-to-bottle journey of Brookdale’s maiden Chenin Blanc. An exceptional wine, the 2017 Chenin Blanc established Brookdale’s reputation as a producer of elegant wines with distinct character, and Scott was appointed sole winemaker at Brookdale Estate in 2019 at the age of only 26. This made her the youngest woman ever appointed as head winemaker in South Africa.
From December to March, harvest in the vineyards is unrelenting hard work, and Kiara Scott is there directing and guiding the process at every stage.
The estate’s proprietor, Tim Rudd, spent much time in the vineyards of the Mediterranean and bought Brookdale with the vision to explore the lesser-known wine varietals of Portugal, Italy and France. Together with Scott, he explores intriguing blends and unusual technique combinations on the estate. They also share the conviction that wine is made in the vineyard, and spend as much time out among the vines as they do in the cellar, working to express the terroir of Brookdale Estate in their wines.
South African writer, photographer and editor Russel Wasserfall has worked in the media space for over 35 years. His work is mainly in the arenas of food and travel and has appeared in more than twenty books and dozens of magazines. Wasserfall has run bars and restaurants, including his award-winning South African restaurant The Table at De Meye, and consults to restaurant start-ups on innovative food concepts. He runs a weekly podcast on the restaurant and food scene in his Cape Town home called A Table in the Corner.
