by Bibendum Times
We arrived into work yesterday to the sad news that Graham Beck, the man behind the brand had passed away. Our thoughts are with his wife of 50 years, Rhona, and all the Beck family.
Graham was a pioneer of the modern South African wine industry and a pivotal figure in its resurgence in the years following the end of Apartheid. An entrepreneur to the core, his first fortune was made through a home renovations business, and his second through the mining industry, but it is his work with wine that will leave the greatest legacy. Graham purchased Madeba farm in Robertson, which was to become the home of Graham Beck wines, in 1983 and later bought vines in both Stellenbosch and Franschhoek. Today the company is one of the most successful and respected in South Africa. But Graham Beck wines have always been about more than just grapes, corks and bottles.
In 2007, the company formally created a game reserve adjacent to its Robertson home offering vital protection to a myriad of species of flora and fauna, and preserving them for future generations to enjoy. Two years later 2009, many years of work with the local community culminated in Graham, with his wife of 50 years, Rhona, opening the Graham and Rhona Beck Skills Centre near Madeba. The centre is part of an extensive social development program, and aims to facilitate skills development for the long term upliftment of the farming community in the Breede River Valley. Graham’s commitment to his community and the environment was clear to all who knew him or who visited the winery. It is telling that he believed his greatest achievement was to “give employment to thousands of people, and that this has enabled them to better their lives.”
Graham was always a firm believer in the Cape’s potential to make outstanding sparkling wines and revolutionised the production of Cap Classique wines, made in exactly the same way as Champagne. He was very proud of the fact that Graham Beck Brut NV was served at Nelson Mandela’s inauguration as President of South Africa in 1994, an honour that was echoed in 2008 when the Obamas served the same wine at one of their inauguration balls in Washington.
It is a wine that has also graced the table of many a Bibendum gathering over the years, and we’ll be opening a few more bottles this week to toast a life very well lived.
Tags: Graham Beck, south africa
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Bibendum, Erica Fowler. Erica Fowler said: New post on Bibendum Graham Beck (1929-2010) – by Bibendum Times We arrived into work yesterday to the sad news tha… http://ow.ly/18kRjr [...]