The Winemaker
Gielbert Beukes
“Gielie” as he is known, grew up on the rolling hills of the Overberg but came to realize that that his passion lay on the other side of the Hottentots Holland mountain range. He has spent time working his way round the world, participating in harvests in Bordeaux and Napa Valley and finishing some much needed qualifications from Elsenberg. He has been involved with several South African Wineries including Hartenberg, Glen Carlou and most recently La Motte.
His preference is to work with Bordeaux and Rhone varietals and he is looking forward to producing hand crafted wines that reflect the character of the Schalkenbosch Estate vineyards and to help promote Tulbagh as one of the finest wine producing areas in the country
Free time or “me time” as he calls it gets spent in the saddle of his mountain bike exploring the valley or getting together with good friends to drink wine and eat crayfish!
Suzanne Miller
Suzanne grew up in Durbanville, and although not living on a farm, was always intrigued by the surrounding vineyards.
She studied winemaking at the University of Stellenbosch finishing her B.Sc Agric degree in 2002. Her career commenced at Spruitdrift Cellar in Vredendal and then in 2003 she moved to Stellenbosch Hills. There she got a wonderful grounding and valuable winemaking experience.
During her years at Stellenbosch Hills, Suzanne made a wide variety of market related wines and small award winning batches, fully exploiting her passion for making wine. She then joined Schalkenbosch Estate in 2008.
Suzanne wants to produce a range of wines from the Schalkenbosch Vineyards which will cater for all tastes – from everyday, easy drinking, quaffing wines to more serious and carefully crafted wines for the discerning pallett and we are looking forward to tasting the results from her first harvest in 2009.
“Schalkenbosch has amazing potential and I embrace and enjoy every challenge coming my way” enthuses Suzanne.
Johan Delport
Johan Delport – Johan grew up in Worcester and graduated from the Elsenberg College of Agriculture in 1994. He has worked at Slanghoek, KWV, Botha, Klawer and Citrusdal Cellars and gained valuable wine making experience in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal and California, and developed a passion for Rhone Style wines and varieties.
Johan is excited about the developing potential of the Tulbagh area as a quality producing region, in particular for the Rhone varieties.
In his spare time (if he has any) he enjoys snorkelling, sky diving, canoeing, bungi jumping and “running with the bulls in Pamplona…!!”.
Josef Krammer
Josef Krammer, a Cape Wine Master, has now retired from Schalkenbosch and returned to Austria with his wife and family, where he has an interest in the family wine estate. We wish him well and look forward to his continued input into Schalkenbosch whenever he returns to visit on holidays.
“Schalkenbosch is committed to the conservation and preservation of indigenous fauna and flora and is a member of the biodiversity and wine initiative.”
