This month we are delighted to introduce another recent addition to The Tasting Room team – Freda-Marizen Jacobs. Freda hails from another wine region – Robertson – where she discovered her passion for wine. Matriculating in 2015, she was considering a career in nursing but opted to take a gap year instead, to decide where her future would lie. After trying her hand at one or two jobs, she had the opportunity to work in a tasting room on weekends. The rest, as they say, is history. She started off as a runner and kept her eyes and ears open to learn as much as she could about wine.
One day, she was asked to take a few German guests on an impromptu cellar tour and did such an excellent job, it cemented her employment. She spent the next seven and a half years there, continuing to develop her knowledge of – and love for – wine.
We asked her what it is about her role at Oldenburg Vineyards that really excites her, and she says it is because the wine speaks for itself. Often, she pours the wine and allows the guests to talk about the wine before she offers her insights.
Chardonnay is her favourite cultivar, loving both more elegant and heavier styles. In her spare time, Freda likes to read – but only books about wine (she is currently reading The Wine Bible by Karen MacNeil). She also enjoys watching the occasional series. An unusual (and unexpected) fact about Freda – she describes herself as an introvert. While she enjoys her interactions with the guests and presents a more extroverted version of herself at work, in private she prefers to take a step back.
Freda’s single biggest learning moment in wine was applying for her WSET 3. While she had already built a solid wine knowledge base through her sommelier training, she found the challenge of WSET 3 both humbling and hugely motivating to study and expand her knowledge even further. Freda is still on her WSET 3 journey. Her goal is to complete the Level 3, and one day pursue her Master of Wine.
We asked her if there are any people in the industry that she looks up to as role models. “Too many to mention,” she laughed, but went on to name local sommeliers that inspire her – including Roxanne Waldeck, Spencer Fondaumiere, Joseph Dhafana – and our own Stefan Reinmuth. She admires their work ethic, what they are achieving in the industry, and she sees the various skills she aspires to acquire, to continue building her own abilities and career.
Welcome, Freda!
