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

wine Wine is an alcoholic drink made from Fermentation in winemaking, fermented fruit. Yeast in winemaking, Yeast consumes the sugar in the fruit and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Wine is most often made f ...

and cheese producer Fairview, in

Paarl Paarl (; ; derived from ''parel'', meaning "pearl" in Dutch) is a city with 294,457 inhabitants in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It is the largest city in the Boland, Western Cape, Cape Winelands. Due to the growth of the Mbekweni ...

in the

Western Cape The Western Cape ( ; , ) is a provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the List of South African provinces by area, fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , an ...

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 Pronouncing Gazetteer.
Thomas Baldwin ...

. 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: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

and the lifting of

economic sanctions Economic sanctions or embargoes are Commerce, commercial and Finance, financial penalties applied by states or institutions against states, groups, or individuals. Economic sanctions are a form of Coercion (international relations), coercion tha ...

, 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, South Africa, Malmesbury in the south, Darling, Western Cape, Darling in the west, Piketberg in the ...

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 Viognier () is a white wine grape variety. It is the only permitted grape for the French wine Condrieu AOC, Condrieu in the Rhone Valley (wine), Rhône Valley.J. Robinson ''The Oxford Companion to Wine'', Third Edition, p. 754, Oxford Univers ...

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. It is found in the Rhône and Provence regions of France, the Valencia and Jumilla, Bullas and Yecla '' denominaciones de or ...

. Back also bottled South Africa's first single varietal

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

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

Rhône The Rhône ( , ; Occitan language, Occitan: ''Ròse''; Franco-Provençal, Arpitan: ''Rôno'') is a major river in France and Switzerland, rising in the Alps and flowing west and south through Lake Geneva and Southeastern France before dischargi ...

style varietals, as opposed to the

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( ; ; Gascon language, Gascon ; ) is a city on the river Garonne in the Gironde Departments of France, department, southwestern France. A port city, it is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the Prefectures in F ...

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 Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela ( , ; born Rolihlahla Mandela; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African Internal resistance to apartheid, anti-apartheid activist and politician who served as the first president of South Africa f ...

. 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)