I am an unusual winery owner. For one, I started young, in fact below drinking age. It wasn't illicit alcohol that drew me. It was the meeting of art and science that fascinated me. I was fascinated by how a vineyard can produce different wines depending on the vintage and the handling by a winemaker. I became the youngest recipient WSET II. This was back in the 1990's in South Africa, which was coming out of isolation. I had good enough grades to get accepted to medical school but the fascination with winemaking pulled at me. Nature and agriculture run deep in our family: My grandparents were farmers working on a collective farm and my mother was born there. My father was part of the UN panel on climate change that received the Nobel prize and throughout my youth I traveled with him around the world to projects addressing climate change. Straight out of high school, I wrote to every wine estate that I admired and worked a series of jobs on some of the best wine farms in South Africa: I worked as a cellar hand at Rustenburg Estate under the legendary Etienne Le Riche with (who subsequently opened his own label making some of the best Cabernet in South Africa) and Hans Vinding Diers who was visiting assistant at the time (now the owner at Bodega Noemia Patagonia making some of the best Malbecs in Argentina). Later, I successfully mapped the genetic fingerprints of different cultivars, spending time at the University of Cape Town and Klein Constantia (where the legendary Vin De Constance is made) and throughout the winelands analyzing vines. The thread connecting all of these experiences was traditional winemaking crafting beautiful wines , full of personality and character.

I did eventually finish medical school, studied neuroradiology at the State University of New York and then at Yale University. Over time, I realized that the wines I was seeing were changing. They were becoming the same at every store, like the Coca Cola and Olive Garden. Not bad wines, just the same everywhere. I also realized that a lot of wines were becoming very expensive, not always related to their quality.

Knowing that there is much more to wines than a "brand", our family took the leap of faith and started Safriel House to help change this cycle. We find the amazing vineyards which the insiders know about but are destined to disappear into a mass produced wine ocean, and make those into individual, amazing wines. You can TASTE the difference in our wines. People agreed and said that we have something special and that’s how we kicked off. Suddenly, we were in the wine business and not always knowing how to make ourselves heard amongst the corporate giants other than what we knew about beautiful vineyards and classic winemaking.

And that brings us to you, the reader. Breaking the disconnect between quality grape growers and consumers is where you can have an impact. I invite you to try our wines and read our mission in the "Our Story" of the site. You will taste the difference and understand why we believe that good food gets you to the table and good wine keeps you there.