Graham

Graham Weerts’s love of the outdoors and agricultural heritage made winemaking an inevitable choice. He began his career working harvests in South Africa, later moving from the vineyards into the winery as a cellar hand, leading him to the post of assistant winemaker at Mulderbosch Vineyards. There he assisted with the production of their iconic Chardonnay and Chenin Blanc — an experience that lead him to Dalkeith decades later. Graham spent a season working for Château de Terrefort-Quancard in Bordeaux. In that time, he earned his degree in viticulture, wine science and pomology from Elsenburg in 1996.

Working the 1999 harvest at Vérité in California’s Sonoma County sparked a different passion for Graham, and he moved to California in 2004 as winemaker for Stonestreet in Alexander Valley. Yet, Graham could not ignore the call of his South African roots and his love for its rugged beauty.

Graham returned to South Africa as the winemaker for Jackson Family Wines’ Capensis. Dalkeith is the expression of his love of Africa’s incredible wildlife, landscape and inescapable energy. 

Mario

Mario was born in Paarl. With both of his parents working on wine-producing farms, his father even making his own wine on the weekends, it’s hard to imagine that Mario had dreams of becoming an accountant. Yet, destiny or genetics had a hand to play when a general worker holiday vacancy at DGB winery turned into a winemaking career.

Mario was selected for an exchange as part of the the SKOP programme (Senior Kelder Opleidings Program) that sent him to Burgundy for three months. Upon returning to DGB, he met the newly appointed Head of Winemaking, Graham Weerts, who, after a brief meeting and a Chardonnay-blending test, appointed Mario as his Assistant Winemaker. It would turn out to be a partnership neither of them could shake.

Having studied multiple courses in wine, viticulture, oenology, and wine judging, Mario gained international experience by working for multiple wineries in Burgundy, St. Potel Winery in Nuits-Saint-Georges, and Domaine Jean-Jacques Confuron in Premeaux-Prissey, Côte-d'Or; as well as completing a sommelier course at CFPPA Beaune in 2006, where he was the highest overall achiever. In 2007, he completed a harvest at Casa Madero in Mexico and joined Graham Weerts at Stonestreet Winery in the United States for the 2008 harvest.

In 2018 Mario joined Graham Weerts again, this time as part of Jackson Family Wines, taking over the reins as winemaker for Dalkeith Wines in 2022.

Jacques du Bois

From Du Bois family owned vineyards Sonop, where Koplandsteen is grown.

Adi Badenhorst

Owner and grower of Kalmoesfontein & Jakkalsfontein in Swartland.