Sunday, August 15, 2021

Francis "Duimpie" Bayly RIP

Francis Carr Bayly, the son of a Karoo sheep farmer, became one of the fathers of the modern South African wine industry and one of its most important participants. His departure leaves an enormous void. Our thoughts are with his wife, Sue, and his family 

He was given the nickname Duimpie (Little Thumb in Afrikaans) because he was the smallest boy in his dormitory at St Andrews in Bloemfontein. The small boy grew into an immense personality. 

After studying for a BSc at Stellenbosch, he joined Stellenbosch Farmers Winery in 1962, where he was employed to analyse wine samples in the laboratory. This helped to develop his interest in and love of wine and his next step was enrolling at the University of California, Davis, to study viticulture and wine making. He returned to Stellenbosch Farmers Winery with an American MSc degree and an American wife, Sue

At SFW, he was involved in vineyard selection and in negotiating contracts with grape-growers as well as in making wine. He was responsible for many of the wines which built SFW’s reputation as a producer of quality wines. Travels to other parts of the wine world improved his wide knowledge and helped to develop his very fine palate. At the inception of the Cape Wine Academy’s Cape Wine Master programme in 1984, he was one of the first three Cape Wine Masters with Bennie Howard and Dave Hughes

From his early time at SFW, which evolved into Distell, he became a Director of Distell as well as having influential positions on the boards of numerous important wine and agricultural industry bodies. He was an enthusiastic promoter of South Africa's red wine varietal, Pinotage. The SA National Wine Show (SANWS), presenters of the Veritas Awards, has announced that the Award for the overall Champion Wine of the competition, the Veritas Vertex Award, will be named the Duimpie Bayly Vertex Award in future. In this way he will be honoured for his immense contribution to South African wine, the SA National Young Wine Show and the Veritas Awards. He was a former Chairman of the SANWS 

He died at home, of a heart attack. He was 81 years old and always young at heart, as these photographs, the most recent we have taken of him, show. Undoubtedly, it was his gentle, loving nature and huge sense of fun that made him very attractive to women – many of the photographs we have taken of him are with women

with Sue, his wife of 50 years, at Plaisir de Merle, February 2020

at the 2019 Terroir Awards

with Blaauwklippen winemaker and Old Mutual Trophy judge Narina Cloete

with Maryna Calow, Communications Manager of Wines of South Africa

and presenting the awards with Bennie Howard CWM

At the 2018 Cape Winemakers Guild Auction with Johan Malan of Simonsig and Jan Boland Coetzee of Vriesenhof




At Meerendal, February 2020 with David Biggs, Bennie Howard and Dave Hughes,
the white-bearded men of South African wine

and being serious at the 40th Anniversary of the Cape Wine Academy in 2019

Receiving a special Honorarium from Beyers Truter
"in recognition of his Exceptional contribution to the development of Pinotage, South Africa's unique cultivar"

All the Cape Wine Masters who were attending the 2020 new Cape Wine Masters Graduation Luncheon at Nederburg
Duimpie has joined Allan Mullins, sitting next to him, at the great wine cellar in infinity
Two huge losses to the South African wine industry







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