4 days ago
Aslina Wines challenges Western culture through winemaking
At Aslina Wines, KwaZulu-Natal's Ntsiki Biyela pays homage to her grandmother, Aslina, and to Zulu tradition, through a cultural wine brand rooted in heritage.
The Cape Winelands are fertile grounds for innovation and promotion of industrial-scale wine production. In the largest wine-producing region in South Africa, the Western Cape is home to winemakers, wine brands and wine lovers. As much as 70% of the wine sold in South Africa comes from this region and continues to entice tourists and empower locals to support the vineyards vying for international recognition.
While wine tasters sip to strengthen the local economy, winemakers are behind the scenes building the beloved brands.
KwaZulu-Natal's Ntsiki Biyela is the founder of Aslina Wines. After the passing of her grandmother and her newfound interest in wine, Biyela wanted to pay homage to her grandmother, Aslina, and Zulu tradition, creating a cultural wine brand rooted in heritage.
Her bottles and brand not only represent her commitment to culture but to curated selections. The established winemaker was not exposed to wine growing up, yet learnt about the fermented drink business during her studies. Since 2016 Biyela has been on a mission to share her premium South African wine brand with her community and beyond.
Biyela was born in a rural village in KwaZulu-Natal, Mahlabathini. Young Biyela had fond memories of growing up on a farm, tending to cows with her grandmother. Some of the scents and tastes of her wine are reflections from her childhood, creating a wine brand that challenges the conventions of the wine industry, one grape at a time.
While some wine tasters might think of truffles, mushrooms from the Karoo, Biyela was reminded of the dairy aroma of amasi, fermented milk. When she was young, she said, when sniffing wine she used to smell characteristics of forest and manure.
After graduating from high school Biyela received a scholarship to study viticulture and oenology at Stellenbosch University to pursue winemaking. Upon graduation she worked at Stellekaya Wines in Stellenbosch as a winemaker for 13 years. Moving from rural KwaZulu-Natal to the suburbs of Stellenbosch marked the beginning of Biyela's promising career.
Winemaking wasn't Biyela's initial career choice. Instead, the opportunity to study wine encouraged her to pursue the unfamiliar field. Despite this decision to ultimately study wine, Biyela experienced a culture shock. Biyela, a Black South African woman, became aware of the lack of diversity in the wine industry.
'In this industry, for me the hurdles were culture – cultural difference,' said Biyela.
Though the predominantly Afrikaans-speaking school (Stellenbosch) was foreign to Zulu and English speakers, Biyela decided to change her perspective to transform her educational, personal and professional experience at university by learning how to integrate into her new environment.
'I navigated that by really just diving into it – building bridges, making friends and trying to figure out what it was going to be. I didn't have another option, that was it,' said Biyela.
Since coming to South Africa, I have had serendipitous sipping experiences with the cultural wine brand that inspired me to interview the winemaker herself.
My first experience trying Aslina Wines was at the Africa Food Show in June. I was invited by chef, food security expert and entrepreneur Miles Kubheka after he and I had been conversing on WhatsApp before my arrival. While I have been reporting on diversity in the culinary industry, I am also reporting on spaza shops through the Pulitzer Center Campus Consortium Fellowship. I reached out to Kubheka to interview him based on his knowledge of spaza shops and he kindly invited me to the event.
This three-day event connected vendors with distributors, hospitality groups and media to showcase products currently or not yet on the market. Here, I stumbled upon the wine brand that celebrates Zulu culture with the burgundy calabash, a traditional drinking vessel with grapes placed on the top as the logo of the brand, Aslina Wines.
Though Biyela wasn't at the event, her two representatives, marketing and brand coordinator Eden Bezuidenhout and sales coordinator Yoliswa Masekwana, were.
At the food show, both representatives warmly greeted guests and two bottles from the brand were on display when I arrived – a 2023 Chenin Blanc and a 2023 Chardonnay. As a sweet-wine lover, Masekwana offered me the Chardonnay as a hopeful substitute for my maturing palate. The dry wine was met with buttery notes and had a creamy texture. I watched as other attendees lined up to taste the Zulu-inspired brand. I picked up Masekwana's business card before leaving the event – this surely couldn't be my last experience tasting a bottle from Aslina Wines.
The second sip session experience was at EDGE X VUE. My editor, Tony Jackman, friends and I had an evening of tasting cultural cuisine at the restaurant in Cape Town. When our waitress with the colourful hair scarf, Ayanda Peters, proposed three options for the diners to choose from – Aslina Sauvignon Blanc, Marianne Rosé and the Glen Carlou Merlot — I chose the bottle from Biyela without hesitation.
I remember putting my lips to the glass and tilting my head back to try the refreshing zest that offered a lingering finish of lemon notes. I remember drafting an email to the marketing representative at the dinner table because I was too eager to interview Biyela. After a few days of correspondence I was scheduled to interview one of the first Black female winemakers in South Africa.
On the day of the interview, it was a not-soshocking rainy day in Cape Town. I had just finished dining at AmaZink, a restaurant in the Kayamandi township, before heading to my interview with Ntsiki Biyela. The trip to Alberto Drive in Devonbosch, Stellenbosch, was a short 10-minute drive through the townscape to the semi-rural grounds and greenery.
Upon arrival, a barrel that read 'ASLINA by Ntsiki Biyela' was written on the wooden frame with her calabash logo on top of the words. The rain gently pattered on top of the barrel and from the glass doors one table was filled with guests with presumably filled glasses on the table.
Inside the tasting room, red couches are paired with beige accent chairs. Posters with different wine bottles from Aslina Wines against a wildlife background with the logo of the brand are hung on the walls. More wine bottles from Aslina are on display, but by the receptionist's desk.
Customer service and wine specialist Scarra Wayiza greeted me at the door before I reunited with Bezuidenhout and Masekwana. Our short reunion was soon joined by the wine owner herself, Biyela, a woman with beautiful moles and short locks. We shook hands and she immediately offered me a beverage of my choice – a glass of wine or tea. She sensed my shy spirit and chuckled before bringing me a glass – the option that I was too nervous to ask for.
The interview I psyched myself out for was a pleasant chat about community, culture and curation. Interviewing Biyela was like talking to one of your favourite aunts. The witty woman effortlessly cracked jokes, shared her wisdom on the wine industry and offered words of encouragement to me as an early-career journalist.
While interviewing Biyela, she shared that Absie Pantshwa, co-founder of EDGE X VUE, proudly displays Aslina Wines as an opportunity for local and Black winemakers to be highlighted at the restaurant to uplift the economy and support local businesses.
'Wine is playing a role of matriarching, putting people together, but also wine is playing a role of changing the economic aspect of the country,' said Biyela.
As the marketing coordinator, Bezuidenhout understands the role winemakers and buyers have in the wine industry.
'Local owned wine brands put food on people's tables. Not only does Aslina give me a good life that I can live because it supports me, but it also supports the farm workers, the people who do the labelling, the people who do the bottling,' said Bezuidenhout.
Biyela's wines include a curated selection to cater and complement cultural cuisine such as her grandmother's chicken curry. In KZN, the Indian influence helps to enhance the flavourful Zulu meals. Biyela challenges Western wine philosophy by experimenting with different cuisine and wines. She remembers her experience in Japan when she and her peers decided to try a glass of Cabernet with spicy noodles.
'The wine is already in the bottle, but it is all about what you are going to do with your food so that it pairs well with your wine,' said Biyela.
As a young winemaker, Biyela remembers being told not to pair red wine with spicy food. The bold brand owner did the exact opposite.
'It made the wine sweeter, it made the flavours explode,' said Biyela.
Biyela wants to encourage aspiring winemakers to explore different meals with unexpected bottles.
'It must either enhance the flavour profile of the wine or it must match it, but you don't want any of this suppressing each other,' said Biyela.
Biyela's brand is more than wine in a bottle, she offers intimate wine tasting room experiences for customers to explore. At Aslina Wines, customers can expect to taste five selected wines: Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc, Cabernet Sauvignon and Umsasane, Biyela's grandmother's nickname which translates to 'tree'. The traditional Zulu word means protection.
Biyela believes different cultures can enhance the wine industry.
'It helps the industry to bring beautiful structures, beautiful textures, beautiful tastes, and you can't just go one dimensional,' said Biyela. 'Having all of these different cultures is actually a good thing for the wine industry.'
While the wine industry continues to transform, Biyela encourages young winemakers to be flexible with their learning and networking.
'Be knowledgeable about it, but also allow yourself to learn, be open to learning, ask questions, talk to people,' said Biyela.
Before leaving the tasting space in Stellenbosch, I snapped a couple more photos of the Afrocentric ambience and watched Biyela take a seat with the guests attending the tasting experience, her friendly spirit matching the energetic company of the wine tasters.
A month later, I was attending the Local Wine Expo in Johannesburg on Tony's behalf and Aslina Wines was there once again. I proudly snapped a photo and sent it to Tony.
It is nearly 10 years since Biyela has decided to start her wine business. The heritage in a bottle wine brand challenges the Western wine industry by mixing traditional ingredients to create her wine brand.
'When we look at the wine industry, the wine has been mostly wine as Western culture, but now… there's a global village. We all have different foods. It is for us to understand, the wines should adjust to what we do,' said Biyela. DM
