VERITAS 2022

LIVING LEGENDS 2022

13

After his military service at the Military Gimnasium in Pretoria, he joined the Maties in 1965 for a degree in Viticulture and Oenology. He started work as extension officer for the former Dried Fruit Board in Upington and became assistant-winemaker for Orange River Wine Cellars in Upington in 1972. Two years later Olla was appointed as cellarmaster by Romans River Wine Cellar outside Wolseley, where he was at the helm of business for 21 years. He regularly travelled overseas and spent two harvesting work stints in Germany, respectively at Breisach and Weinsberg. Locally, he judged at an early stage at the SA Young Wine Shows. His long standing connection with the Pinotage Association, as it exists today, also started in those years when Prof Joel Van Wyk involved him as a judge for the Pinotage competition. He has also tasted a few times on the panel for SAA wines. In 1986 Olla successfully completed the Senior Management Programme for the US Business School. From 1996 he became production manager for Swartland Wine Cellar near Malmesbury, shortly after them starting to export bottled wine to the United Kingdom and Europe in 1995 – which was a new terrain and fascinating challenge to encounter their strict quality requirements. To “keep busy” after his retirement and to still express his intense interest in the South African wine industry on a daily basis, joined Clear Mountain Wines in the year 2000, a company licenced to buy and sell bulk wine, among others. And 50 years later he is still involved with wine! Well done, Living Legend Olla Olivier with a lifetime in the industry! BEYERS TRUTER Beyers Truter’s achievements span 31 years since graduating with a BSc Agric degree from the University of Stellenbosch, starting his winemaking career at Kanonkop in 1991 and then on his own estate Beyerskloof in Stellenbosch, where today his son, Anri, carries on the family winemaking tradition and daughter Corné manages the eatery. Truter’s focus was directed at making, promoting and elevating the South African variety Pinotage to premium wine status, capable of standing alongside other great red wines of the world. He is the long-time chairperson of the Pinotage Association, which he founded in 1995. He has served as chairperson and on the executive committee for many years. His dedication to Pinotage has earned him the titles of Mr Pinotage, the Prince of Pinotage and Pinotage King. His most recent awards were the 1659 Award for Visionary Leadership at the 10th annual Wine Harvest Commemorative event in February 2021 and the Wine Personality of the Year Award by the Institute of Cape Wine Masters in 2022. This was to ‘’mark his demonstrable efforts and initiatives that have benefitted the South African wine industry, leaving a lasting impact and legacy and encouraging and inspiring others within the industry. Beyers has played a vital role in educating consumers in South Africa and around the world on the red wine he so dearly loves – Pinotage.’’ Truter won the 1987 Diners Club Winemaker of the year for Pinotage and is the unsurpassed eight-time winner of the Pinotage Top Ten Competition, also winning numerous awards and trophies over the years. These included the International Wine and Spirit Competition: the Robert Mondavi Trophy for International Winemaker of the Year in 1991; the Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande Trophy for the best blended red wine, the iconic Paul Sauer 1991 Bordeaux blend, in 1994 and 1999; the IWSC Perold Trophy for