From a pre-eminent position in the beer-swigging, dart-playing, rugby-watching student community in Johannesburg, Greg rapidly descended into the nefarious underworld of wine snobbery when he joined the Cape Wine Academy’s programme in 1992.
The catalyst was a once-a-month tasting circle, offering generous helpings of good plonk at sponsored rates. Like most obsessive social aberrations, these activities snowballed. The downward spiral was spurred on by a Wine Magazine New Wine Writer award in 1996 and a move to the Cape in 1999 to establish a wine estate in Hermanus, culminating in graduation as a CWM in 2000. Dissertation: “Winery Design Principles”.
Since then, he has pursued his career as an architect in and around the wine industry, lectured and tutored wine education at all levels and judged wine at most of the important competitions.
Greg and his wife, fellow CWM Margie Barker, live in Somerset West, where they have better-than-average wine with most meals.
