Guy Webber, the highly-skilled creator behind Stellenzicht's superb wines, was born in De Aar in 1965. His parents relocated to Bloemfontein where he attended Grey College. It was in Bloemfontein where Guy's interest in agriculture was conceived.
When his parents relocated again, this time to Pretoria, he enrolled at Pretoria High School for Boys from which he matriculated in 1983. Guy was accepted to study at the Elsenburg College of Agriculture. In 1988 he successfully completed his studies with a Diploma, in the first class, in Viticulture and Horticulture, as well as a Diploma in Cellar Technology.
He started his working career as a Trainee Technical Assistant with Gilbeys in Stellenbosch, and then spent six years honing his skills as a winemaker in positions at Clos Malverne and Devon Hill Winery. During this time he received his certificate in Wine Judging from the Cape Wine and Spirit Education Trust and and became a member of various wine tasting clubs and committees.
In 1998, Guy joined Stellenzicht Vineyards as winemaker and has enjoyed phenomenal success ever since. What does this talented oenologist believe determines the quality of a wine? Balance. Even during the growing of the grapes. "When the vine gets too much water, the berries swell too much and the resulting wine can literally be watery. If the vine suffers from draught, it gets too stressed and does not ripen its grapes properly. The result is a wine which can best be desribed as green or stalky. The aim is balance, to give the vine enough water to ripen its berries without diluting them." This, however, is not where it ends.
Balance continues to play a role in the processes of fermentation and maturation of the wine. "Take the fermentation temperature, for example," Guy explains. "High temperatures result in very good colour and tannin extraction in red wines, but also in the evaporation of much of the grape's inherent fruit flavours. Cold temperatures, on the other hand, result in very fruity reds with little colour and often even less body. The well-known French winemaker, Robert Drouhin, however, once stated about balance that living with your feet in an oven and your head in a freezer does not mean that your average body temperature is about correct. The most important thing about balance is to avoid extremes." This Guy Webber does.
Just sample, for instance, his perfectly balanced (and perfectly balanced in every way) Stellenzicht Semillon Reserve 1999.