South Africans need to understand their competitors and their wines, otherwise they are never going to get the exposure and recognition the country deserves, says Wine and Spirit Education Trust Educator of the year winner, Cathy Marston. And she’s not a little bit proud of her new title, arguably the highest honour available in the world of wine education and highly coveted by more than 600 educators and programme providers worldwide.
“This is
a shot in the arm for the country as a whole and certainly yet another way
of making other countries sit up and take notice of us. But I do think it
will be a bit optimistic to say it will change SA wine education.”
The
award was given to Cathy for her contribution to promoting WSET within
South Africa and for achieving excellent results. Ian Harris, Chief
Executive of WSET, praised Cathy for her hard work and
dedication introducing WSET to a new country where the qualifications
were unknown. Her excellent use of social media to spread the WSET message
and promote her courses was commented upon and mention was made
of her efforts to spread WSET outside South Africa into the rest of
the continent.
“It’s
been a hard slog at times trying to explain the benefits of WSET and why
people should choose a WSET course and what it can do for them and their
career. I hope it will now be seen as the first and only choice when
people are choosing their education path and that people will realise an
internationally recognised qualification puts you in far closer touch with
the rest of the world than any other.”
Cathy,
who loves to teach, believes wine education has changed considerably over
the past five years. “I can only really speak about WSET, but it has been
an absolute pleasure (and a bit of a secret triumph) to see that
the new level two material (published in August 2014) now contains
more than double the amount of SA content than before. This is so
important because these are the courses the rest of the world use as their
basis for information and if we don’t figure there, it makes it much harder
for us to figure in terms of awareness of our wines, sales opportunities
etc. I’d like to think that my WSET students and I have perhaps
contributed to this increase in some small way! And I can’t wait for the
new Level 3 materials to come out, which should be later this year.
“We are
absolutely on a par with our international counterparts in terms of the
wines we make. In terms of awareness of international wines, wine styles
and trends – perhaps not so much. It is very difficult to obtain
international wines in this country and the weak rand really counts
against us. But it’s important that we continue to try. We have to
understand our competitors and their wines.”
In terms
of changes to be made, Cathy says she wishes people would be prepared to
spend more on wine and be more adventurous. “Even trying international
wines from Woolworths and Checkers would be a start. South
Africa’s days of isolation are over, we need to embrace the rest
of the world and I know they will love us back in return.”
Although
educating people about wine is such an integral part of her life, Cathy
loves wine first. “I don’t think arguing over a wine’s merits is going to
change the world! If we ever forget that wine is fun and that drinking it
is a pleasure, then we are completely missing the point. So I always
like to see, read and be with people who love and enjoy their wine with no
pretensions or preconceptions.”
For
Cathy the biggest challenge facing our wine industry with regard to
education is confidence. “We need to give people confidence at grass roots
and break down this absurd idea that wine is elitist. You don’t need to
study forever, you don’t need to become uber-qualified and end up as
an MW, but if you felt empowered and engaged enough to learn even a little
bit about wine, you’d enjoy it so much more. I’d love people to feel that
wine can be part of their lives.”
So how
do we educate? Share, share, share, share, share. Share your wines with
people – can there be a better thing to do with a bottle of wine? Share
your experiences – good and bad. Share your enthusiasm – if you love it,
why wouldn’t your friends love it too? Use social media – I learn so
much from tweeted articles and shared Facebook links.
“And
then share another bottle for good luck – wine is generosity, friendship,
pleasure and life in a glass.”
Challenges facing SA wine
industry?
Positioning
our offering and lack of government support.
Strengths of SA wine
industry?
Our
wines. Seriously. We have nothing to be ashamed of and our best wines
can hold their heads high in pretty much any international
company anywhere in the world. Also, I’ve travelled a fair bit and I
have seen nothing to match the beauty of the Western Cape anywhere,
so we need to continue to promote wine tourism.
Biggest changes in the SA wine
industry over the past 10 years?
The
lack of international awareness and benchmarking. I can help
with that!
What do you do when you are not
busy with all things wine?
Read
voraciously, eat far too much, look at my bike and think ‘mmm – I
must go out on that sometime’ and open another bottle of wine.
Pet hate?
People
who can’t spell ‘palate’. Just kidding – unkindness.
Guilty pleasures in life?
Woolworths
Prawn Cocktail crisps.
Best wine moment?
Drinking 20
year old Ridge Montebello, bought at the farm from Paul Draper
himself and the first wine I drank after having a baby.