Gerda’s career in the Wine Industry started in 1988 when she was thrown into the deep end by her consultant winemaker, Jan Boland Coetzee (owner of Vriesenhof) to taste wines for blending and preparing the yeast inoculations at their winery in Franschhoek at the time.
Though she was more involved in the marketing and exporting of their wines, she was thoroughly bitten by the wine bug.
She consequently joined a tasting group, which then led to her formal studies with the Cape Wine Academy, attaining the CWA Diploma II in 2002.
Her Cape Wine Masters qualification was achieved in 2007, and her research topic was “Terroir: the footprint of great wine“.
She established my own wine export company, Mouton House of Wines in 1997, exporting mainly to Europe and China under their own brands. In 2001, she started with the import of Champagne and wines from France; marketing these through tastings to the trade.
In 2002, she established the Winejoy Wine Club where she offers tutorial tastings as well as fun evenings in wine appreciation. Her current focus is to expand the activities of the Winejoy Club in wine appreciation, education, gourmet food and wine matching events and establishing an on-line wine exchange website.
Her particular interest is the design of, and advising on investment in wine for private cellar owners as she comes from a background of interior design through her company Interior Space Design. Gerda have written articles on wine investment for private cellars inter alia the Property magazine of SA.
