Black Pearl

Mary – Lou Nash
After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts, magna cum laude, I went on to teach English in Japan and travel throughout Asia for four years.
My major at University of New Hampshire was Anthropology, so I spent a lot of time learning about other countries and cultures. “Free Tibet” was a big slogan at the time, and my close friends were obsessed with that area. I found it fascinating, but didn’t have the cash at that time to travel. Then I heard about the JET program which brought native English speakers to Japan to teach English. That was my door into Asia. In 1990 I was flown to remote Mie-Ken where I spent two years teaching English in middle school. Fabulous years, and at the end I had enough yen to travel. I took the slow boat to Shanghai and spent the next two years backpacking through China, Tibet, Nepal, India, Pakistan, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, New Zealand and Australia. Remember, this was traveling before wi-fi, cell phones and a McDonald’s on every corner. Truly an amazing experience.
I hand planted the vineyards on Rhenosterkop farm and taught myself winemaking before becoming a Cape Wine Master.
Before coming to South Africa in 1995 my only wine experience was sailing off the coast of Maine with my Dad and drinking magnums of cheap Chilean wine in the evenings. My first South African wine taste was an off dry Steen from Simonsvlei! I was a beer drinker (and still am!) My passion for wine started when I was thrown in the deep end of a first harvest of Chenin Blanc at the farm Rhenosterkop which my Dad had bought from a friend in 1995. With the 2 farm workers and their wives I picked 25 tons of Chenin Blanc and drove it to the Co-op with an old Fiat tractor and a 3 ton trailer. After that I told my Dad if he paid for my food and booze I would stay for 1 year and manage the place for him. That was over 20 years ago! This was the beginning of my passion for wine.