Sunday, February 26, 2023

RIP Dave Hughes CWM

A South African wine revolution started in the 1960s when a few bright young men worked at Stellenbosch Farmers Winery and Nederburg. The wine industry was controlled by the KWV who set quotas which determined the size of the crops grape farmers were permitted to make and the varietals they were allowed to grow. There were very few individual wine producing estates and SFW and the KWV bought most of the crop.

These enterprising young men led the way out of a rigidly controlled industry into a new way of thinking about wine and marketing it.

Prominent in this group were Ronnie Melck and Duimpie Bayly at SFW, Günter Brözel at Nederburg and, a few years later, Dave Hughes and Bennie Howard, also at SFW. Dave, at the age of 84, has now joined Messrs Melck and Bayly in the great cellar in the Universe after a long and illustrious career in the wine industry and after several years of declining health.

Duimpie Bayly, David Biggs, Bennie Howard, Dave Hughes

Dave had a deep knowledge of the wine and spirits industry and shared it with all who wished to learn from him. He was exceptionally generous and kind and never had a bad word to say about anyone. He founded the Cape Wine Academy in 1979 and was awarded the title Honorary Cape Wine Master in 1983 together with the first three Cape Wine Master graduates, Bennie Howard, Duimpie Bayly and Tony Mossop.

With Phyllis Hands, first Principal of the Academy, and John Kench he produced one of the first glossy coffee table books about the wine industry, The Complete Book of South African Wine, in 1983. It was followed by a second edition in 1988 and by Wines and Brandies of the Cape of Good Hope in 1997. These books, along with the publication of the first Platter guide in 1980 were very influential in increasing brandy and beer-drinking South Africans’ interest in the wine industry.

Dave was deeply religious and a devout Catholic. Many wine-related meals we attended started with a specially composed Grace which he wrote and delivered. His lightness of spirit infused every gathering he attended and his death is a tremendous loss.

All the stories we have published can be seen in the Blog Archive near the top of the column on the right

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