Ambassador Eric Bost was joined by members of the wine industry and media for the official ribbon-cutting ceremony at Vilafonté Vineyard in the Western Cape wine on February 26. Vilafonté is the first American and South African joint winemaking venture within the global wine community. Head winemaker at Vilafonté is American Zelma Long who is one of America’s best-known winemakers with an international reputation.

Fellow American Dr. Phil Freese is the head winegrower at the vineyard, which employs high technology (remote sensing project with NASA) as tools for viticulture analysis and quality enhancement. General Manager Mike Ratcliffe is also the managing director of his family’s estate, Warwick. Vilafonté and other bilateral projects could assist with the marketing of South African wines in the U.S. which represents less than 1% of the South African wine export market.

The winery participates in the annual project which sends black wine farm workers to the U.S. where they spend three months of the year in Virginia and Monterey working on wine farms and attending classes at vini- and viticulture institutions.