Caroline is the Marketing Director for Southern Africa at Distell, where see oversees all marketing activities across the wine, spirits and RTD portfolio for the region. She has held several other positions at Distell – Luxury Brands Director, Business Director Spirits as well as Technical Manager for the Spirits Production division.
She is currently the Chairman of the South African Brandy Foundation.
She has a degree in chemical engineering from the University of Stellenbosch, as well as an MSc and a PhD in Wine Biotechnology. The topic of her MSc thesis was “The breeding of yeasts for enhanced brandy aroma”. Her PhD focused on understanding the influence that base wine composition and wood maturation has on the style and quality of South African brandy.
Caroline obtained her Cape Wine Masters diploma in 2004. Her dissertation topic was “Mediterranean grape varieties in the New World”. This topic was of particular interest to her in lieu of the growing interest and emergence of Rhône style wines in warmer grape growing regions of the world.
She has judged spirits and wines on several panels including the Brandy Panel of the International Wine and Spirits Competition in London, Veritas and Michelangelo Awards.
She is married to Coenie Snyman, who is winemaker at Rust en Vrede. Their hobbies and interests therefore naturally include exploring wine regions of the world, and a taste for fine food. Horses are her other great passion.
