Charles Louis Back is the third-generation owner of South African

wine Wine is an alcoholic drink typically made from fermented grapes. Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts are m ...

and cheese producer Fairview, in

Paarl Paarl (; Afrikaans: ; derived from ''Parel'', meaning "pearl" in Dutch) is a town with 112,045 inhabitants in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It is the third-oldest city and European settlement in the Republic of South Africa (after ...

in the

Western Cape The Western Cape is a province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , and the third most populous, with an estimated 7 million inhabitants in 2020 ...

province. Fairview Estate is a third-generation family-owned farm, located on the slopes of the Paarl Mountain in the winelands of the Western Cape.

Career and winemaking philosophy

Charles Back studied winemaking at Elsenburg Agricultural College in

Stellenbosch Stellenbosch (; )A Universal Pronounc ...

. He officially joined his family's company in 1978 and took over full control in 1995 after his father, Cyril, died. Following the fall of

Apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

and the lifting of

economic sanctions Economic sanctions are commercial and financial penalties applied by one or more countries against a targeted self-governing state, group, or individual. Economic sanctions are not necessarily imposed because of economic circumstances—they ma ...

, Back initiated marketing and sales on the international market. Back is also the owner of The Goats do Roam Wine Company and The Spice Route Winery, which is a wine cellar in the

Swartland The Swartland is a region of Western Cape Province that begins some north of Cape Town and consists of the area between the towns of Malmesbury in the south, Darling in the west, Piketberg in the north, Moorreesburg in the middle and the Riebee ...

region of the Western Cape. Back has brought a number of new grape varietals to South Africa and is one of the country's original ''Rhône Rangers''. He was the first producer to plant Viognier vineyards in the country, and has the largest plantings of

Mourvèdre Mourvèdre (also known as Mataro or Monastrell) is a red wine grape variety grown in many regions around the world including the Rhône and Provence regions of France, the Valencia and Jumilla and Yecla '' denominaciones de origen'' (DOs) of S ...

. Back also bottled South Africa's first single varietal

Petite Sirah Durif is a variety of red wine grape primarily grown in Australia, California, France, and Israel. Since the end of the 20th century, wineries located in Washington's Yakima River Valley, Maryland, Arizona, Texas, West Virginia, Chile, Mexico ...

. He is of the opinion that the majority of South African vineyards should be planted to more Mediterranean and

Rhône The Rhône ( , ; wae, Rotten ; frp, Rôno ; oc, Ròse ) is a major river in France and Switzerland, rising in the Alps and flowing west and south through Lake Geneva and southeastern France before discharging into the Mediterranean Sea. At Ar ...

style varietals, as opposed to the

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefect ...

ones that have typically been favoured.

Other achievements

In April 2006, South African WINE Magazine voted Back the second most influential person in the South African wine industry, after Nelson Mandela. In 2007 Back was nominated as one of UK publication Harpers most influential personalities in the wine industry The KWV appointed Back onto their advisory winemaking committee in 2007, tasked with assisting the company with their quality and production strategy.Hymli Krige
(June 2005). "KWV mentoring team". ''Wineland''. Retrieved on 20 April 2008. In 2017, Back was awarded the 1659 Wine Industry Medal of Honour 2017 and the South African Farmer of the Year 2017.

References

External links

Fairvalley Eco-village blog
{{DEFAULTSORT:Back, Charles South African winemakers Living people Year of birth missing (living people)