Cape Winemakers Guild marks 30 years with coffee table book Cellarmasters in the Kitchen by Wendy Toerien

Published: September 21, 2012

The Cape Winemakers Guild on Food & Wine

Three decades of excellence at the pinnacle of winemaking has been captured in an insightful coffee table book on food and wine featuring all the members of the Cape Winemakers Guild, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year.

Founded in 1982, the Cape Winemakers Guild is an association of some of South Africa’s top winemakers, committed to maintaining and constantly improving the quality of their wines, thereby serving as role models for the wine industry as a whole to uphold and build on the reputation of South African wine globally.

Beautifully written by Wendy Toerien, the text is both light-hearted and entertaining as well as evocative and informative. Each of the 45 Guild members is featured in a profile piece that includes anecdotes, insights and experiences of a life with food and wine. Also included are two of each winemaker’s favourite recipes, matched with one (or more) of his (or her) top wines.

Sections dealing with the history of the CWG (interwoven with its role in leading Cape wine industry developments and initiatives); the workings of the CWG and its members (the philosophy of the traditional role of a guild as a touchstone for artisanal excellence); and the activities of the CWG (including the annual, internationally prestigious auction of selected members’ wines and social responsibility programmes such as the Development Trust to mentor new young winemakers from previously disadvantaged backgrounds and school funding) are another feature of this celebration of the Guild and its members.

Wendy Toerien has been writing about wine since 1989. She was a founder editorial staff member of Wine magazine in 1993 and became closely familiar with the wine industry, its winemakers and the CWG during her tenure there until 1998 when she started her freelance career. She has written several coffee table books on wine and related subjects, including South African Wine – A Celebration and South African Wines and Vineyards, published by Struik in 1999 and 2000 (reprinted 2003) respectively.

She has also been a contributing writer on Platter’s South African Wine Guide for more than a decade, and writes articles on wine people, wine tourism and winelands lifestyle for local and overseas publications.

in the United States, maintaining a high international standard.