News
Stephen Ludlam joins The Winery
Alex Dale and Steve Ludlam
The Winery has taken a further significant step in developing the talent and passion that encapsulates its unique approach to winemaking in the South African industry. At all levels -from Vineyard to consumer- The Winery's ambition has always been to fill each link with a passionate and driven individual. With the combination of humour, professional competence, innovative thinking and a love for wine, the basic pre-requisites for each new member, the latest addition to the team is certainly cut from the finest cloth.
Stephen Ludlam joins The Winery from one of the most established and respected wine families of the Old World. After 5 years as European Export Director for the Symington Family (owners of Grahams, Warre's and Dow's Ports, among others), Steve has jumped at the opportunity to take the reins and to drive The Winery's implantation within the main markets of Europe and beyond. The opportunity to take the sales helm of one of South Africa's most dynamic and passionate winemakers proved too much of a temptation to resist, whilst providing Steve with a unique challenge to partake in building a true leader from this emerging and truly great region of the wine planet.
A British Citizen, though Tanzanian-born, Yorkshire-raised and half-Danish, Steve's cosmopolitan outlook is simply a perfect fit with The Winery's international make-up and its understanding of the global wine industry. Whilst passionately focused on the pioneering spirit and vast potential of the wines of the Cape of Good Hope, The Winery team draws vast experience and inspiration from its various nationalities and overlapping philosophies.
Married to a Capetonian, and following a previous 4 year stint as Senior Export Manger to the Winecorp Group in Stellenbosch, Steve has for well over a decade been inseparably linked to the Cape, where he feels so much at home. Having initially spent several years winemaking at Domaine Bertagna in Burgundy in the late eighties and early nineties, Steve's wine-wonderings took him to South Africa for his first vintage in 1993. Then followed several years cutting his teeth in sales in the brutally dynamic UK market, before returning to the Cape in 1998 to team-up with Alex Dale and Ben Radford, then the backbone and locomotives of Longridge Winery and Winecorp in Stellenbosch.
We are simply delighted that Steve has joined The Winery and value his professional caliber and individual passion, both of which have immediately boosted the spirit of our already motivated team.