Training 2 010 wine waiters for 2010
9 January 2009
Wine lovers can contribute to South Africa's World Cup effort, and help promote job creation and skills development in the country, by purchasing Fundi, a premium red wine developed as part of an initiative to train 2 010 wine stewards ahead of the 2010 Fifa World Cup.
Wines of South Africa (Wosa), the not-for-profit organisation that promotes South African wines worldwide, launched Fundi - the isiZulu word for learner - in August 2008 with a view to raising around R4.5-million for the training programme.
Profits from all sales of Fundi, a top-calibre red wine created expressly for this purpose, go towards the training programme.
Each bottle carries a beaded neck tag produced by informal roadside beaders, and the wine was produced by six wineries, each individually identified on the back labels of the bottles.
"We invited the industry to submit wines for consideration in an open tender," says Wosa CEO Su Birch. "Submissions were chosen in a blind tasting by members of the Cape Winemakers' Guild according to the same exacting standards applied when choosing wines for its annual auction."
- Fundi is available through Cybercellar, at Makro stores, La Cotte Wine Shop in Franschhoek, Caroline's Fine Wine Cellar, and an increasing number of stores and restaurants in South Africa, at around R120 per bottle.
Growing new 'wine ambassadors'
Birch says the initiative aims to ensure that South Africa's World Cup visitors enjoy a positive experience when ordering wine, while building awareness among a new and potentially influential group of "wine ambassadors" who can contribute to increased wine sales in the domestic market.
"The project aims to do more than transfer basic wine knowledge," says Birch. "Trainees will be equipped to serve wine with greater competence and confidence. However, we also hope they will make wine their alcoholic beverage of choice and reach a broader base of South Africans and introduce them to wine appreciation."
Birch says the plan is to recruit half the candidates for training from the country's hotel and restaurant industry and the other half from the unemployed, adding that the programme has the full backing of hospitality industry body Fedhasa.
"The training module, designed by specialists already successfully training in the hospitality industry across southern Africa, will give candidates a basic understanding of wine that is relevant to their own life experience," Wosa said in a statement.
"It will allow them to communicate with a fair degree of knowledge about the wines they will be selling in the restaurants, hotels and lodges where they are working or will be seeking jobs, and equip them to articulate to customers what makes South African wines so special.
"Our dream is that among this group there will also be some sufficiently inspired to advance their training still further and become sommeliers either by studying through the Cape Wine Academy or by gaining experience or training abroad."
Birch says Wosa is exploring the possibility of establishing bursaries for waiters to be trained internationally as sommeliers.
A range of companies has supported the project by donating goods such as glass, corks and labeling, while other service providers have reduced their costs for legal, accounting, banking, marketing and related fees.
The Winelands District Municipality has already committed R250 000 to the initiative, to be used for training candidates in the Winelands.
"Mayor Clarence Johnson's generous move allows us to begin training immediately in the heartland of the wine industry, where visitor expectations for good wine service will, understandably, be at their highest," says Birch.
SAinfo reporter
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