JOSEPH Tongai Dhafana had his first sip of wine on his birthday on March 7, 2010, and he did not like it.
BY PHILLIP CHIDAVAENZI
But today, the 36-year-old is rated among the country’s finest sommeliers — as wine makers are known — who has even bottled his own brand.
The first bitter taste, however, did not entirely put him off, but he regarded it as a dare for him to go off the beaten track and venture into the exotic art of wine-making.
“It was on my birthday when I was given a glass of Bubbly by my boss,” recalls Dhafana, who is based in South Africa where he is a sommelier at La Combe. “Honestly, I didn’t enjoy it.”
The curiosity about wine that had started growing inside him led him to study wine in Stellenbosch with Cape Wine Academy in 2012 and, in his own words, he “never looked back”.
Dhafana currently works for La colombe Restaurant, which he describes as the best in Cape Town.
“It is the world’s 73rd best restaurant and recently crowned number seven in the world by Trip Advisor,” he said.
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Over the last few years, he has mastered the art so much that just recently, he was the captain of the team that represented Zimbabwe at the 2017 Blind (Wine) Tasting Championships in France.
His experiences as he travelled around the world, he says, have shown him that his countrymen have such a poor appreciation of wine, itself associated with a taste for the good life.
“I was raised in an environment where wine culture was not known. We, as the new generation or the current crop of wine makers or sommeliers, need to come home quite often and do wine tasting or educate our fellow Zimbabweans to learn how to appreciate wine,” he said.
He says he has observed that many Zimbabweans partake of wine to get drunk, when the primary reason should be enjoyment.
The sommelier says he does not classify wine making as an elitist profession, but the grind was hard, especially for an unknown upstart.
“There is no quick money in making wine and if you’re not known, no one will buy your products. Young brands always suffer stillbirth because they spend more than what they will get (you) in return and one can wait for a year to see the little return,” he said.
Dhafana has created his own brand of wine called Mosi — which is short for Mosi-oa-Tunya (Victoria Falls) — as a way of identifying himself with his home country, which boasts the mighty Victoria Falls.
The name, he says, is also an indicator of a long-cherished childhood dream to visit the Victoria Falls.
“I have always wanted to go to Victoria Falls since my childhood. Sadly, I haven’t achieved that yet. I know I will go soon. So I came up with a name Mosi for shortening Mosi -oa-Tunya,” he said.
The sommelier says he conceived the brand in 2014, with his 10-year-old son, Tinashe, helping him with the grape harvesting and pressing.
Dhafana’s patriotic leanings are unmistakable as he is constantly drawn to his country of birth despite being resident in South Africa.
“The label (is) just to show the identity of the wine maker. I might be residing out of my country of birth, but I love Zimbabwe. Just to show love to my country, I am the 2017 captain of team Zimbabwe which was in France for the Blind (Wine) Tasting Championships,” he said.
The wine maker says it was his second time to participate in the competition because he was part of the South African team in 2015 after he was adjudged the third best wine taster in South Africa that year.
“That gave me a ticket to represent the rainbow nation (SA). Because I love my country, I applied to France with the help of a good French sommelier friend, Jean Vincent Ridon, for Zimbabwe to be recognised and participate. Luckily we were accepted as a country,” he said.
Dhafana says he spent two weeks in Europe touring Germany, France and Holland while shooting a documentary on wine-making that will be launched in New York in 2019.
Dhafana, who showcased his wine at Sammie Torindo-Waniwa’s book launch in July this year, offered a wine-tasting opportunity to guests present.
“The turnout made me realise that I need to do more of these tastings and, obviously, I would want my wine to be consumed back home,” he said.
“It (the wine) was well received but it’s very costly. It cost me almost R15 000, which is not a lot for a commercial wine producer, but way too much for someone like me who is making wine as a hobby.”
Besides his own brand, Dhafana says he is increasingly drawn to other wines such as the Sadie Family, Mullineux and Warwick, whose managing director, Mike Ratcliff, is a good friend and advisor.
The wine maker says wine-making offers him the scope to experiment and come up with new brands of wine as “the whole process is an experiment” since his wines fermented naturally.
But does being a wine maker automatically make one a wine taster? Dhafana says a wine taster regards wine “with a different mindset” because they have “the consumer in mind”.
“Making wine doesn’t necessarily give you the visa to be a good taster,” he said. “Most of the wine makers can only taste their own wines. I was fortunate enough to be a wine taster first before being a wine maker.”
