Just as the mighty oak’s destiny is written in a tiny acorn, Joseph Dhafana is proof positive that there is more to life than can be explained by genetics or environment. For just ten years ago Joseph and his wife Amelia – who originally hail from rural Chirumanzu in Zimbabwe – arrived in South Africa as refugees.
‘We had had enough of the tyranny of Mugabe,’ recalls Joseph. ‘In Zimbabwe there was no food on the shelves, no money in circulation and no jobs available.’ Feeling they had nothing to lose, Joseph and Amelia arrived in Johannesburg and slept on the streets for their first two weeks until they found a temporary home with a cousin. However, not long after fate stepped in when they decided to move to the Western Cape and settle in the Boland town of Riebeek Kasteel where Joseph found work as a gardener at a restaurant and Amelia as a receptionist at the local hotel. Barely a year later, Joseph found himself tasting his first glass of sparkling wine on the occasion of his birthday and it did not go down well.
‘I didn’t like it,’ he says with a grin. ‘Zimbabwe doesn’t have a wine culture, particularly among the black culture, so much so, that you rarely see an empty wine bottle let alone a full one.’ Nevertheless, it awakened something in him, in that he realized that he wanted to do more than drink it. ‘I was interested in the process of winemaking and eager to understand it.’ It must have been obvious to the local winemakers too because while Joseph worked his way from gardener to dishwasher, and barman to waiter – local winemakers Chris Mullineux, Eben Sadie and Roger Clayton were frequently asking him to taste wines from their barrels. Joseph’s ‘aha’ moment came in 2013 when Chris Mullineux brought him a glass of his White Blend and asked his opinion on its acidity. ‘I gave him my most honest thoughts,’ is all Joseph can recall. But the rest – as they say – is history for that very same year Joseph took part in the harvest with Chris and earned his first wine certificate.
