Stellekaya Winery
P.O. Box 12426
Die Boord
7613
South Africa
27 21 883-3873
www.stellekaya.com

Ntsiki Biyela doesn't remember the name of the first wine she tasted. The soft-spoken 29-year old just recalls that it was red and she didn't like it. 

But just a few years later, Biyela is poised to become a bright light in the wine world as the first black woman winemaker in South Africa. Biyela recently traveled across the United States showing off the subtle, European style red wines she crafts at a boutique winery called Stellekaya, which means "home of the stars."

 "South African wines are not for the young palate," Biyela said. "With our wines, you get both fruit and you do get an Old World style more close to the French style."

 After visiting with wine lovers in New York and San Diego, Biyela headed up to the Napa Valley. She was treated like a VIP, meeting with winemakers at Simi Winery, Seghesio, Chalk Hill and Matanzas Creek and experiencing some of her first California zinfandels and pinot noirs.

 "We don't have a lot of pinot noirs in South Africa," she said. "Actually it's a nice wine; a very delicate wine."

 Like many blacks in South Africa, Biyela grew up in Zululand in a family that didn't drink wine. Biyela thought she was headed for a career in chemical engineering when she heard that South African Airways was offering scholarships to students interested in studying winemaking. On the way to earning her Bachelor of Science in Oenology from Stellenbosch University, Biyela developed a devotion to wine. A few years later, Stellekaya winery owners Dave and Jane Lello hired her as their winemaker.

Biyela thinks winemaking is a complex skill that blends science and art. But most important is the heart that the winemaker brings to it.

 "You need to love it and be passionate about it," Biyela said. "You can't make good wine if you're not passionate because you won't pay attention to the details."

Working with fruit from the surrounding Stellenbosch region, she crafts three varietal wines from merlot, cabernet sauvignon and shiraz. Stellekaya's blends which are named after constellations include a Hercules, a Tuscan style mix of sangiovese, merlot and cabernet sauvignon that Biyela says is delicious with mushroom risotto. The Cape Cross blend features South Africa's native pinotage grape along with cabernet sauvignon and merlot. The 2004 Cape Cross, which retails for about $26, is a complex and rich wine that slowly opens up to reveal dark berry flavors balanced with notes of earth and leather.

It's exciting to be a winemaker at the same time that South Africa's growing black middle class is developing a taste for wine. Biyela hopes that her work will entice more South Africans and wine lovers around the world to try the fine wines being made in South Africa.

"When people think of South Africa, they think of game reserves, the Townships and they think of crime," Biyela said. "I want them to be open and understand that South Africa makes quality wines."

Stellekaya wines can be purchased online at www.tangowine.com or by looking for local retail outlets on www.wine-searcher.com.

Maria Hunt is a contributor wine expert for Cuisine Noir Magazine. She lives in California.  Read more about Maria.