BOSMAN’S HEAD OF WINE: CORLEA FOURIE
Corlea Fourie is a well-known South African winemaker and has been making wine at Bosman Family Vineyards since they renovated and re-opened their historic cellar on the farm in the Bovlei of Wellington in 2007. Today her name is synonymous with quality wines as seen on the shelves of UK retailers such as Sainsbury’s and Co-op.
But how did this partnership between Fourie and Bosman wines begin? Back in 2007, as a young graduate in Viticulture and Oenology from the University of Stellenbosch, women winemakers were a rarity. But today, Fourie heads up a team of three female winemakers at Bosman Wines. Their signature sensitive and thoughtful approach to winemaking at this cellar could well be attributed to the female touch.
Corlea’s entry into winemaking was a novel one. The students who tend to study winemaking are generally male and often have a wine farm in the family that either sparked their interest or would dictate their future. But Corlea grew up far from the Cape Winelands and from farming in the city of Bloemfontein in the Free State. While her parents enjoyed wine, winemaking was never a consideration for this academic child.

Her plan was aways to study medicine, but in Grade 11 she started wavering and her father suggested a gap year after school to get some perspective.
It was while working in a pub in Scotland, that the alchemy of wines and whiskies first sparked her interest, and by the end of that year she had changed her tune registering at the University of Stellenbosch as a student of Viticulture and Oenology.
To complete her studies, every student had to complete an internship in a cellar, and Corlea serendipitously landed up shadowing Bertus Fourie at Diemersfontein. The two soon fell in love and were married soon after, making Wellington their home and therefore a job at the new Bosman cellar with 8th generation Petrus Bosman, was the perfect option.

Many people wonder what a winemaker actually does all day. Some think it’s just a matter of pressing the grapes, fermenting them into wine, and then hanging around for the rest of the year until the wines are ready to be bottled and sold.
Well, nothing could be further from the truth! Sure, harvest is the busiest time and winemakers spend long hours in the cellar putting the grapes, juice and wine through their paces. But after that, once the wines have finished fermenting, they are usually blended together, aged in barrels and prepared for the various requirements of a very demanding market.
Winemakers also have to spend time in the vineyards working with viticulturists towards allowing the vines to flourish by looking at soil and canopy management and tending to the vines so that they produce what the winemaker is looking for in the resultant wine. At Bosman, the focus is on regenerative farming which requires a tailormade regime to minimise the carbon footprint and enrich the soil so that healthy grapes can be turned into excellent quality wines that truly reflect their provenance.

There is also a load of paperwork. Traceability is important, as is quality control. Long and thoughtful conversations need to take place between winemakers and sales people, buyers and sommeliers to continually plot the way forward and find that niche for each particular wine.
“Winemaking is not the quest for zero defect,” explains Corlea, “it is rather the gentle art of letting a vineyard express its unique terroir, letting the wine tell its own story vintage after vintage in a way that expresses provenance, quality and care. It’s a delicate balance of hands-on/hands-off that keeps me on my toes. I love that challenge!”
Corlea is well known in the industry for her love of Chenin Blanc and her thoughtful, innovative approach to making wine. One of the first decisions she was part of, was whether to pull out an old vineyard of Chenin Blanc. Both she and Petrus decided to give this gnarled, low-yielding vineyard, planted in 1952, one final chance, and so the legendary Optenhorst Chenin Blanc was born. This was in the days before Old Vines earned their spotlight through viticulturist Rosa Kruger. It was merely an instinctive decision to vinify this vineyard on its own, using only the natural yeasts found on the vines, creating a unique wine that beautifully expresses its terroir and heritage.


Later on, this now-famous vineyard received Old Vine (OVP) status and it is officially the third oldest vineyard in the country. Last year Tim Atkin MW awarded an impressive 95 points to the ’23 vintage of this legendary wine.
Since then, Corlea has become known for her love of Chenin, so producing a rich and robust Chenin blend for Bosman named Adama White. Their Generation 8 Chenin Blanc has also made a name for itself as that wine for every occasion, that wine you just need to have in your fridge to accompany a mid-week meal, a weekend braai or to pack into a picnic basket.

Another varietal that caught her eye, is Cinsaut. Always considered the work-horse red grape of yesteryear, this varietal was traditionally used in the high volume ‘Dry Reds’ on the local market. But on the Bosman farm was a beautiful vineyard of Cinsaut, referred to by the local community as Hermitijk Kop. Now Hermitage (or Hermitijk in Afrikaans) was the colloquialised name for Cinsaut, indicating that Cinsaut had always been planted on that site.
The wine shows lovely fresh cassis aromas with hints of tobacco, allspice and savoury notes. The nose follows through onto the luscious palate with lively berry and cherry flavours. Although medium-bodied it is a bold wine with an elegant structure. It is a wine generally revered by sommeliers in top restaurants both locally and abroad, making a name for Corlea Fourie as a winemaker.

While Bosman wines sell in Sainsbury’s in the UK, Corlea Fourie is also the winemaker of several of the Sainsbury’s Fairtrade Taste the Difference wines from South Africa. Currently the Chenin Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc, Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot blend are all produced by her at Bosman Family Vineyards.
Another wine of hers that is doing really well in the UK at the moment is the Bosman Generation 8 Chardonnay: Award-winning wine writer Olly Smith had this to say: “… this is rich and zingy with a white peach vibe and glossy texture. It represents a new wave of fruit-driven Chardonnay.”
Back home Corlea also played a vital role of the establishment of the vineyard at Bosman Hermanus in the Upper Hemel-en-Aarde Valley. This elevated, cool climate site was acquired in 2000 so that this family from warm and sunny Wellington could also make wines like Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc.
Annually Corlea presents a food pairing evening at the Frame House located there, where guests are treated to exquisite dishes paired with Bosman wines and regaled with stories of the grapes, the vines and the beautiful art of winemaking.

In the broader sense, Corlea can be described as more of a vintner than a winemaker, because a vintner has a broader role than just making wine. She is involved in the whole process from grape cultivation to winemaking as well as the business and marketing aspects of running a winery.
She is very involved behind the scenes in the cellar, managing audits, stock, and creating new blends to satisfy new and changing customers. A seasoned traveller, Corlea makes regular trips to the UK, Europe and the USA to promote Bosman wines and to keep her finger on the pulse of the latest trends around the world.
But her preference is to be at home, walking between the vine rows in the early morning as harvest starts each day: “For all this time I learnt, not only from the vines, vineyards and vintages, but from all the people that are part of my story too. The ones who rise before dawn, who know every row by heart, who sort, press, taste, market, sell and nurture with the same care year after year.

“Harvest is never a solo endeavour, it’s a chorus of hands and voices and shared purpose. Twenty vintages later, that rhythm is second nature, but the privilege of working alongside the team, this community, never fades.
“Grateful for the places I get to see, walk and taste. Grateful for the hands that shape it, Grateful for another harvest, another story.”