The day she turned her back forever on life as a domestic worker, 20-year-old Ntsiki Biyela boarded a bus in Durban and left KwaZulu-Natal for the Western Cape.
It was the first time shed left the province of her birth. We drove and drove and drove some more. We were still driving the next morning. I dont know where we were but I looked out the window and there were mountains so high I couldnt see their tops.
Then I saw vast fields of short green trees. It was only when I got to Stellenbosch that I learned these were called vineyards.
Little did she know that within two decades she would be acknowledged as a trailblazer; not only as the first black woman winemaker in South Africa but one who has achieved global acclaim for her wines.
In fact, the name Ntsiki Biyela is better known in the United States, Britain, Europe and Japan than it is in South Africa.
