Where is your Kumusha?
“Do justice to yourself: enjoy and appreciate wine without a pretentious aura.” Tinashe Nyamudoka
We’re so excited to share South African wines with you from the new-to-us winery Kumusha! Kumusha translates to ‘one’s home, roots, or origins,’ and the taste of place, the taste of Africa, is experienced through these wines. Try Kumusha Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet Sauvignon. Both are easy-drinking, terroir-driven, and balanced expressions of these grape varieties. They are also super limited and we are very lucky to carry them!
One way to make fast friends in Zimbabwe is to ask a Zimbabwean, “Where is your Kumusha?” It’s a Bantu term used by the Shona people of Zimbabwe to describe the place where you come from. Owner of Kumusha, Tinashe Nyamudoka, was born and raised in Harare, Zimbabwe, and moved to Cape Town in early 2008 to pursue a career in hospitality and gastronomy. Today, Nyamudoka is an executive board member of the non-profit organization the Black Cellar Club (BLACC), holds a diploma from the Cape Wine Academy, the WEST Level 3, and competed in the World Blind Wine Tasting Championships in 2017 and 2018. Additionally, Nyamudoka received a certificate in wine business management at the Graduate School of Business at the University of Cape Town.
Prior to starting Kumusha, Nyamudoka was the head sommelier for five years at The Test Kitchen (TTK) in Woodstock, an edgy, hipster neighborhood in Cape Town. While still at his sommelier position at TTK, Nyamudoka began to circulate his new Kumusha wine to other restaurants, including his own employer, TTK. This turned out to be more of a challenge that he had thought, and as a Black winery owner, his wine was not accepted by many of his peers. Nyamudoka ‘realized that we truly need reverse colonization,’ in the wine industry, and he ‘also felt the pressure of being questioned about why I’m supporting Black.’ One of Nyamudoka’s customers, a manager at a restaurant in Stellenbosch, went as far to mistake Nyamudoka as a deliveryman rather than the owner of his wine that he was delivering. The manager told other Black servers in front of Nyamudoka that they should sell other wines and not just Kumusha, implying not to favor the entrepreneur standing right in front of her. Angered, but not defeated, Nyamudoka returned to The Test Kitchen and added five Black-owned wines to his wine list. He was the first to do this in any top restaurant in South Africa. He also added his own Kumusha wines to the list, which began to gain critical acclaim and positive press throughout the country and amongst his peers.
Around 2018, Nyamudoka was eager to more widely distribute Kumusha throughout his homeland of Zimbabwe. He states, “In South Africa we Zimbabweans are often criticized: ‘they’re taking our jobs.’ I wanted to prove that immigrants can also contribute to the industry and managing to export my wines was my message.” He has faced difficult hurdles exporting at a grocery store chain in Zimbabwe (more about that here in his own words), which has made him further committed to his vision of forming relationships based in integrity and respect within the wine industry. Although Nyamudoka is now exporting to other countries abroad, his overall goal is to grow Kumusha larger in Africa than anywhere else in the world, spanning his homeland from ‘Cape to Cairo.’
Nyamudoka states at his website, “I believe the best wines are representative of their region. [These wines], from my experience as [a] sommelier, are representative of what is leading the way for the style of South African wines. Minimal intervention winemaking and natural fermentation is aimed at letting the wine be free to do the talking.” With this naturalistic winemaking approach at the forefront of his winemaking philosophy, Nyamudoka, partners with winemakers and grape growers in the Breedekloof Valley, including the esteemed estate of Opstal Estate in Rawsonville, South Africa. Nyamudoka meticulously manages the blending process of his purchased grapes, oversees the distribution of Kumusha, and leads digital marketing campaigns within the wine and spirits industry.
Nyamudoka’s main goal in building his own wine brand was to create a wine community unique to Zimbabweans, and to find opportunities as a player in the wine industry, and not just a spectator. Referring to Black professionals within the wine industry, ‘We need representation and ownership in production, distribution, retail, wine communication and marketing. Kumusha Wines is my vehicle to push through this agenda.’ For Tinashe Nyamudoka, Kumusha started as a passion project sprung from love for wine and his country. As Kumusha grows as a business, it also nurtures the necessary global representation of Black winemakers and entrepreneurs. Thank you Tinashe for your delicious wine!
Meet Tinashe here in his interview with CNN.
Shop our website and get Kumusha shipped right to your door! If you don’t see what you’re looking for, or would like curbside pickup or delivery, please call us at (978) 498-4820 or email wine@thecheeseshopofsalem.com. Cheers!