Wineries in South Africa give a boost to blacks

ELGIN VALLEY, South Africa -- When South Africa held its first fully democratic elections in 1994, Patrick Kraukamp, a day laborer, was just starting a job as a forklift driver at the Paul Cluver wine estate in this lush mountain valley.

Ten years later, Kraukamp still drives a forklift from time to time. But now many of the casks of chardonnay, pinot noir, and cabernet sauvignon he shuttles between the cool storage rooms of the vineyard warehouse are of his own making.

Sold under the Thandi label -- a Xhosa word meaning love -- Kraukamp's award-winning wines are shipped to supermarkets across South Africa, England, and Japan and soon will be appearing in the United States.

''I'm still learning," says Kraukamp, a humble, soft-spoken 37-year-old dressed in blue coveralls and red wine-stained work boots who has been training as a winemaker for seven years. ''You take it step by step."

After more than 300 years of white domination, South Africa's wine industry is on the brink of a transformation. The end of apartheid created new opportunities for South African wines, long shut off from the outside world because of sanctions. The wines have improved in quality, and exports have increased a hundredfold since 1994, with 237 million liters exported last year.

At Thandi winery, Kraukamp and the enterprise's 150 other shareholders have more ambitious goals to create a highly profitable vineyard that will create healthy dividends for years to come.

But it will be a long wait, they say, because most profits have been reinvested in the business.

Some critics have said that empowerment enterprises such as Thandi are not so much black-owned and black-operated businesses as examples of white paternalism.

Kraukamp replies that for Thandi to sever ties with its mentor would be a mistake because many workers still lack the necessary expertise.

''We have people who have the skills put over people who don't have the skills. You learn from them," says Kraukamp. ''The day we can run our own winery, we will carry on without them."

The day might come soon. Kraukamp has surprised himself by his success as a winemaker.

A decade ago, he admits, he knew very little about wine other than how to move it around with a forklift.

But everything changed when the Paul Cluver Estate tapped him to become an assistant to its own winemaker and sent him to study in South Africa and the United States. Later, he was asked to design the wines for Thandi. In May, his 2003 chardonnay won a gold medal at the International Wine Challenge in London.

Still, he considers his success little more than an accident: ''I needed to work. I didn't care where."