Truth be told: the word “nothing” does not exist in the vocabulary of the Delheim winemaker Nongcebo “Noni” Langa. There are no limits to her creativity and dreams, and she understands that she’s worthy of all the good life has to offer.
“I was called into this industry,” she says in a conversation with well-known wine sommelier Brian Mahanke. Langa is among the extraordinary wine ambassadors hand-picked for Food For Mzansi’s Faces of Summer campaign – an annual celebration of the people behind some of our favourite summer wines.
Born and raised in Pietermaritzburg in KwaZulu-Natal, she now works for Delheim, a family-owned estate on the slopes of the Simonsberg Mountain, 50km from Cape Town. She initially joined Delheim as an intern before becoming an assistant winemaker until winery veteran Roelof Lotriet was appointed cellarmaster.
“In high school I had a bursary form the department of agriculture so I had to work hard to keep that bursary. Later on, in varsity, [they said] if you wanted to carry on with the bursary, here’s a list of scare skills in the agrisciences field and then I was like, ‘Oooh, okay!”
Through the world of wine, Langa has had the incredible opportunity to see the world.
“There isn’t a lot of careers that offer an opportunity where you would be in the Northern Hemisphere working, and [then] in the Southern Hemisphere working, [both] in one year. So, that actually got me into wine and the rest you just pick up and learn,” she says.
Having graduated with an MSc in Oenology from Stellenbosch University, Langa has already contributed to pioneering work at Delheim. Besides also studying business wine management at the University of Cape Town, she also received further training in California, one of the world’s most prominent New World Wine regions.
Langa’s summer wine selection
Celebrating the Mzansi summer, Langa tells Mahanke that her favourite wines this time of year is definitely Delheim’s Chenin Blanc Wild Ferment, a complex array of wild fermentation characteristics, and the winery’s Ground Reserve, boasting a dark ruby red colour with a complex nose of dark fruits dominated by blackberries and blackcurrant.
The Wild Ferment, she explains, has a sensory character reminiscent of barley, apricots, and peaches, underpinned by well-balanced acidity and oak. In essence, the wine is spontaneously fermented and matured in 500-litre French oak barrels.
“The yeast is everywhere. It’s in the atmosphere. The cells are so small to see. But when it’s harvest time the environment has a lot of yeasts. When you get them in the air, they start to ferment, contributing to different characters and flavours,” Lunga explains.
The Ground Reserve is matured for 18 months, also in French oak barrels.
- As part of its popular “Faces of summer” campaign, Food For Mzansi features some of South Africa’s finest winemakers and ambassadors.
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