Katlego Mathobela’s can-do attitude and her passion for wine have steered her to her true career path.
The 28-year-old Mathobela is the sommelier at one of Johannesburg’s favoured dinning spots, Saint, situated at The Marc in Sandton. She is part of a handful of young black women sommeliers in the country. Her job includes compiling the wine list, contacting suppliers, dealing with stock levels and ensuring the restaurant staff knows which wines are being sold by glass, bottle etc. She works with two junior sommeliers.
Mathobela and I met on a warm afternoon at Luce at the Southern Sun in Hyde Park to launch the third instalment of Wade Bale’s Regional Series, which was dedicated to the Constantia White. First released in 2018, each year the participating winemakers of the Regional Series come together, each bringing either Sauvignon Blanc or Semillon components. These are then harmoniously blended by a different winemaker of each vintage. Although the lead winemaker for the 2020 vintage was Constantia Glen’s Justin van Wyk, Buitenverwachting, Groot Constantia, Klein Constantia, Beau Constantia, Steenberg and Constantia Royale all contributed wine for the project.
Mathobela and I later spoke over the phone about her rise to the sommelier position. The personable Mathobela hails from Polokwane in Limpopo. She came to Johannesburg to study travel and tourism at Rosebank College, she then entered the hospitality industry during the second year of her studies, to get a head start on the practicals she would need to do in her third year. She got a job as an intern receptionist and a part-time waitress on the weekends at Morrells Boutique Estate in Northcliff. Mathobela says the senior waitron staff urged her to speak to management about performing other duties as she was charming and eloquent.
As a part-time waitress Mathobela would regularly chat to the patrons about their wine preferences. She was 19-20 years old at the time, and would watch what type of wine patrons drank and she also depended heavily on the descriptions given on the wine lists.
“I would basically wordplay with what was on the list, I’m very good with words, I did debating in high school, I would word play and I got away with it,” she says.
She was promoted to fulltime waitress halfway through her internship and then decided to actually take her wine education seriously by doing proper research and discovered the wide and wonderful world of wine.
“I then spoke to my manager and asked if we could do little sessions for customers where we can educate each other with what we know. And she slowly started bringing in wine reps and that’s where my fascination deepened,” she says.
After moving around and gaining experience as an events co-ordinator facilitating high teas and conferences, then being a junior guest manager, Mathobela left Morrells and got a job at a fine dining restaurant in Muldersdrift as a junior restaurant floor manager at the age of 24.
“One of the requirements for the job was that I have a WSET (Wine & Spirits Education Trust) level one certificate, which is a UK-based programme which recognises you as a sommelier worldwide. Because being a floor manager requires you to work with wines, I did the course with the company and at that time my mentor was Pieter Dreyer, who is now working for Meridian, lovely, lovely guy.”
Dreyer showed her the ropes, things like what makes a sauvignon, the base of a chenin, how to pick up those notes and how to train your nose, etc.
“Luckily we were in the middle of nowhere, it was a domestic game lodge where we had springboks and hippos, and all that, so you’re exposed to a lot of nature and different smells that really helped when it comes to your blind tastings. So that’s when I realised that I love being a sommelier and that I loved this wine world… it’s such a beautiful niche market, although it’s so small, it’s so big at the same time.”
She was at Muldersdrift for two years and left to join the Marble Group, where she was able to focus solely on being a sommelier. She says she has grown so much, considering that when she was in high school she thought she’d be a geologist but the universe, she adds, has geology back to her in a roundabout way.
“I get to go to wine farms, do all the geological stuff but more viticulture and viniculture, vines and soils, and climate and terroir.”
Mathobela who is currently a WSET level 3 sommelier says she’s learnt a lot at the Marble Group and she’s still honing her craft, from receiving weekly tutelage alongside the other sommeliers of the group from head sommelier Wikus Human to currently working towards her Court of Master Sommelier qualification. She also hopes to become a lecturer years from now.
“The wine industry is a journey in a glass, from the vineyard to the bottle, to what’s in front of you. The wine itself takes you on a journey, it’s something that most people tend to overlook and just drink to get drunk or drink because other people are drinking… though I can say that the South African market has really grown positively in the last five years.”
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