Charles Hopkins Marks 17 Years of Mentorship with a Toast to His Protégés

On a quiet Tygerberg evening, with Table Mountain fading into dusk beyond the cellar windows, Charles Hopkins gathered seventeen winemakers who have passed through his cellar door over the past seventeen years, to raise a glass to them.

As Cellar Master of De Grendel Wines and a long-standing member of the Cape Winemakers Guild (CWG), Hopkins has mentored more protégés through the Guild's Protégé Programme than any other member in its history: seventeen aspirant winemakers across seventeen consecutive years.

"Seventeen years, seventeen protégés. When you say it like that, it sounds like a big number. But for me it was never about the count. It was about learning someone's palate, their instincts, what makes them excited in a cellar and what makes them brave. I've probably learned as much from them as they ever learned from me," says Hopkins.

An Evening of Gratitude

To mark the occasion, Hopkins and De Grendel invited all seventeen protégés back to the farm that shaped so many of their careers; winemakers now scattered across the Cape winelands, bound by a shared apprenticeship and, as many of them fondly call him, their "wine dad."

The evening unfolded as a tasting in three chapters, each protégé pouring a wine that told a piece of their own story.

Mompumelelo Mosaka, now in her final year as a protégé at Graham Beck before heading to Oregon in the United States, presented a Blanc de Blancs Cap Classique 2025 made from De Grendel Chardonnay. A petite woman with an enormous passion for wine and an intellectually sharp, inquisitive mind about the world around her, Lelo, as she is fondly known, is on a mission to explore the wine world internationally, with the aspiration of one day settling back in South Africa. She counts herself privileged to have learned from both Hopkins and Pieter Ferreira, the Cape Winemakers Guild's celebrated Cap Classique specialist who spent nearly four decades at the helm of Graham Beck before retiring earlier this year to focus on his own label, Pieter Ferreira Cap Classique.

Kelsey Schungking, now head winemaker at Rickety Bridge in Franschhoek, poured a Chardonnay 2020. Partially naturally fermented in 100% new French oak made from grapes grown on the De Grendel Op Die Berg vineyard in Ceres, one of South Africa's highest-altitude vineyard sites. The Op Die Berg vineyards, on the family's Dennekruin farm on the Ceres Plateau, produce wines of striking, terroir-specific distinction. Kelsey still remembers falling in love with that vineyard the first time she laid eyes on it, and, like many before her, fondly calls Hopkins her "wine dad."

Ricardo Cloete, white winemaker at Bellingham, presented a Pinotage Magnum 2014. For Ricardo, the Guild and its protégés feel like family, and he credits Hopkins's mentorship to equal parts art and science, with shaping his understanding of Pinotage. He still tells the story of a harvest decision they debated back and forth, weighing whether to pick before or after an approaching weekend of rain, a call Ricardo ultimately made himself, on the Friday. When the technical analysis came back proving the timing right, Hopkins couldn't resist a bit of good-natured suspense before handing over the written proof, telling Ricardo to keep it "in his bible." It's one of many such stories the protégés still trade about their time with him; part mentorship, part running joke, and clearly still fondly remembered on both sides.

The tasting unfolded across three flights. The first, the three protégé wines above. The second, a flight of three De Grendel Op Die Berg wines, presented by Hopkins himself: the Op Die Berg Chardonnay 2024, Op Die Berg Pinot Noir 2022, and Op Die Berg Syrah 2025. Grown on the family's Rietfontein farm on the Ceres Plateau at approximately 1,000 metres above sea level - one of the highest-altitude vineyards in South Africa, occasionally dusted with snow in winter - the Op Die Berg wines carry a distinct, cool-climate character shaped entirely by that terroir: taut acidity, restraint, and a purity of fruit that speaks directly to the extremity of where the grapes are grown. The third and final flight was two mystery wines of Hopkins's own choosing: Uva Mira Syrah 2023, and Chablis Grand Cru 2021 from Domaine Laroche.

Seventeen years on, Hopkins's protégés have gone on to shape cellars across the Cape winelands, among them winemakers now at KWV, Stellakaya, Hazendal, Brookdale and Mullineaux.

"You gave me the confidence to trust my own palate, long before I trusted it myself. That's a gift that doesn't show up on any label, but it's in every bottle I make," says Sacha Muller, one of Hopkins's earliest protégés and now a white winemaker at KWV.

For some, that mentorship has continued even closer to home. Morgan Steyn joined De Grendel as a CWG protégé in 2019 and was later appointed as De Grendel's winemaker. Working alongside Hopkins day to day, Morgan represents the kind of long-term guidance, trust and relationship that the Protégé Programme, and the wider Cape Winemakers Guild community, was built to foster: mentorship that doesn't end when the internship does but continues to shape careers and cellars for years afterward.

A Programme Built on Transformation

Since its inception in 2006, the CWG Protégé Programme has placed promising young winemakers, many from historically disadvantaged communities, into three-year internships alongside members of the Cape Winemakers Guild, one of South Africa's most respected and exclusive winemaking associations, admission to which is by invitation only and reserved for those who have demonstrated sustained excellence and integrity in the cellar. The programme remains one of the wine industry's most meaningful contributions to skills transfer and transformation, with dozens of graduates now holding leading winemaking positions or running their own labels across the Cape.

"I grew up in a home where giving was always valued more than receiving. That's just how I was raised, so mentoring never felt like something I was doing for someone else, it felt natural. But what I didn't expect was how much I'd end up learning from each of them in return. Every protégé who's come through De Grendel has given me something back, whether they realised it or not. For me, mentoring someone properly means understanding where they come from, not just what they want to achieve in the cellar. I've made a point of getting to know each protégé's goals and ideals, but also their circumstances, their families. In many cases I've visited their homes, met the people who raised them. You can't really guide someone until you understand where they've come from and what they're carrying with them," says Hopkins.

Rooted in Heritage

Hopkins has been De Grendel's Cellar Master since Sir David Graaff first invited him to head up winemaking on the historic Durbanville farm in 2005 and, in a rare gesture, to design and build his own cellar from the ground up. De Grendel forms part of the Graaff family's remarkable Cape heritage, tracing back to Sir David Pieter de Villiers Graaff, First Baronet of Cape Town, and carried forward today by his great-grandson, Sir De Villiers Graaff. That same spirit of long-term investment in people and place has shaped De Grendel's quiet but consistent support of education and upliftment within the wine industry.

Looking Forward

"If there's one thing seventeen protégés have taught me, it's that you never stop being a student of this industry. I'm looking forward to whoever walks through that cellar door next, there's always more to learn for me," says Hopkins.

De Grendel and Charles Hopkins extend their thanks to the Cape Winemakers Guild, and to every protégé who has shared a harvest, a barrel, or a glass of wine with him over the past seventeen years.

Photo: Charles Hopkins with his protégés at De Grendel

Pictured: Sacha Muller (2012, KWV, white winemaker), Chandre Davey (2013, South Africa Wine), Ricardo Cloete (2014, Bellingham, white winemaker), Rose Kruger (2015, Stellakaya), Kiara Scott-Farmer (2016, Hazendal, head winemaker), Logan Jooste (Vinpro, viticulture protégé, 2016), Gaynore Hendricks (2018, Mullineux, Round Stone), Morgan Steyn (2019, De Grendel winemaker), Kelsey Schungking (2020, Rickety Bridge), Sharnice du Preez (2023, Brookdale, assistant winemaker), Mompumelelo Mosaka (2025, Graham Beck, current protégé), and Reece Julies (2026, current protégé at De Grendel).

Protégés not in attendance: Maryna Huysamer, Lucrecia Africa, Anique Ceronio, Terry-Ann Klink, and Karabelo Masoleng.