I feel like I’ve been writing this story for a year. It has spanned various interviews, from Stark-Condé’s PostCard café to the Somm’s Karibib Vineyards, Pink Valley, and even Warwick’s offices on a public holiday. It culminated in Madeleine joining me for Rooted interviews at Newton Johnson and BLANKbottle, Kleinjan photographing her for us, and I cannot even ADMIT to the hours in voice notes we’ve sent each other, chewing and REchewing our thoughts. And what GRAND thoughts they are.

Now, in order to deliver our NEWS, it is my great pleasure to introduce you.

Madeleine

Madeleine Stenwreth is a Master of Wine, one of only three in Sweden, OR one of 418 Masters of Wine in the WORLD at present (since 1953), 151 of these FEMALE (the other two Sweden-based MW’s are male), and 208 of these living outside the UK. So yes, Madeleine is one of THEM. She has a particular interest in Chile and Argentina but an all-consuming love of South Africa. You’ll find her at a tasting. Always ushered to the front and queried on her thoughts. Or thrown into the deep end and asked to officiate or make a speech. And she always does this with such honest tenacity, speaking with INTEREST, and more importantly, KNOWLEDGE. I had my first glimpse of her at a CVC tasting. She sat right at the front (where she belongs), with her shock of blonde hair, tanned, long limbs, usually dressed in summer clothing because evidently, the Swedes don’t take South African winters seriously. She’s a runner, a trail runner, to be found scaling the Jonkershoek mountains, whiling away an afternoon on a mountain top, planning out her diary, and shooting out long voice notes on something she had resolved during her run. It’s more like her office. She says she doesn’t want her life to be too easy, which probably explains why she chose South Africa to fall in love with. She says in South Africa, people have to work HARDER than anywhere else to succeed. NO-ONE is afforded the luxury of resting on their laurels, and the effect is probably why South Africa is seen as one of the most exciting wine countries in the world today. Because just surviving in South Africa is not an option, you either thrive or do something you have the potential to thrive in. Simple. The alternative doesn’t really exist unless you’re willing to give up.

MW - The Breed

A Master of Wine is a BREED of people that I don’t think I fully understood until I met Madeleine. They’re a strange kind of amalgamation of academics and DO-ers. The MW accreditation is the highest standard in all aspects of the production, trade, and marketing of wine, as well as related health, social, and environmental issues. They even have a code of conduct, like a kind of vinous Hippocratic oath, but instead of first doing no harm, theirs is centered around the ethics of wine, elevating it to a much higher pursuit than the mere classification of alcohol. Having done my WSET level three-course (probably badly, don’t ask), I cannot even FATHOM the magnitude of the undertaking. Requiring a minimum of three years, with three stages, most students don’t pass the first or second time around. In fact, of the 21 students who took the inaugural exam in 1953, only six passed. You are expected to KNOW everything from viticulture, vinification & pre-bottling procedures, to the handling of wine, the business of wine, and contemporary issues in DETAIL. AS WELL AS THREE, 12-wine BLIND tastings where you assess wines for variety, origin, commercial appeal, winemaking, quality, and style. Some people, like Madeleine, will pass the tasting section first and then do the written section another time. But I imagine a Master of Wine can ascertain through their elevated powers of deduction a Merlot-dominant Bordeaux blend from Pomerol and promptly throw out a potential vintage date given their knowledge of the weather patterns in THAT year. AND the most viable producer given the STYLE of winemaking. A feat that doesn’t just extend to memorising facts but training your palate to Olympic standards. Some Masters of Wine make their own wine, some become internationally recognized critics (see Tim Atkin, Jancis Robinson), some become consultants, open their own wine shops (see Greg Sherwood). The title is a badge of HONOUR and a signal that these are people with a vested interest in wine and the knowledge to back it up. They add value to so many aspects of winemaking, subtly altering the course of wine with a nod or a word here and a nudge there… like Gandalf (but I won’t go THERE). Their power is derived from the proven FACT that they know and understand wine from around the world, making these 418 individuals the custodians of the world’s shared wine knowledge, with the mandate to intervene wherever possible and SHARE that knowledge (in bite-sized chunks so we mere mortals can understand). Which is where Madeleine comes in.

Fate

While we DO have an actual South African Master of Wine, the lovely Cathy van Zyl. And various other industry stalwarts like Michael Fridjhon, Christian Eedes, Tim James, and several others we ascribe to, Madeleine crossed our path via the MENTOR, Ian Naudé. Ian has a way of just TELLING you who you’re going to meet, and making it happen, at once as powerless and yet never more aware of the inevitable hand of fate when HE intervenes. Madeleine comes from the small town of Karlstad in Sweden. By her own admission, a city too small for her aspirations. She worked in various roles over weekends at her parents’ hotel and restaurant from the age of 13 and became entrenched in the service aspect of the role. Once she had come of age, faced with a largely beer-drinking clientele at that time, she was put on the spot one night to suggest a wine from the four red and four white available and couldn’t form an opinion. THAT feeling turned out to be the catalyst in her almighty plight to understand wine. She started studying to become a sommelier when there were only about ten sommeliers in the country and passed it with the highest marks. From there, she merely went from strength to strength. She first came to South Africa in 1994 and in 1997 became Head Sommelier at Grande Roche in Paarl. She became the top wine student in South Africa at the Cape Wine Academy, and then went back to Sweden first working for WOSA, and then as lead buyer for South Africa at Sweden's dedicated alcohol retailer. From there she became the product development manager for a big importer and amongst these roles, in 2002 decided to take on the Master of Wine challenge. While undertaking these studies she traversed the globe a number of times, finding a spiritual home in Argentina and Chile and discovering the wonders of the Andes. She says she just always wanted to PROVE to herself that she could do it and gauge how good she ACTUALLY was. In 2004 she passed the tasting exam, and in 2006, the 4-day written exam to become the second Master of Wine in Sweden (first woman). Today Madeleine acts as a consultant in the wine industry, for the last year, very successfully in South Africa - bringing an invaluable international context to our winemakers, and doing so in her affable manner. I think WHATEVER you are, if you’re unable to offer criticism without venom, or RECEIVE it without venom {I still struggle with both} you’re dead in the water. But Madeleine has a quality that encourages conversation and honesty without judgment- with the feeling that all she wants to do is HELP you produce the best wine possible. It’s an enviable quality, and one that has served HER and the people benefitting from it well.

The Plan

Given the context, throughout our extended interview, it became clear that Madeleine had to CHOOSE a wine to go with her story. But how does one CHOOSE? A consultant to many brands doesn't have a favourite, it's the nature of the job. And given South Africa's plethora of exciting producers, REALLY, how do you choose? So we went back and forth, and what became apparent is that neither one of us wanted her to CHOOSE a brand. We just wanted her to be HONEST, and offer her comments to a wider audience to help inform THEIR discovery. It wasn't about highlighting the BEST, but rather the STYLE of a producer and standout wines in various categories, within a specific vintage. A Guide. As such, in summary of this EXHAUSTIVE introduction, Madeleine will be making her way through the Port2Port portfolio, offering her take on key wines from each portfolio, highlighting interesting wines, and telling us WHY without adding a numerical value to the evaluation. To assist the uninitiated and help introduce them to previously unknown brands and their wine. Because at the end of the day, every wine has a story, you just have to know what you’re looking at.

Given all of THAT, keep an eye out for Madeleine’s first installment of Mads MW and see what you find!