Before Tertius Boshoff cut his teeth in the winemaking world, he was training to cut other people’s teeth in the dental industry. Despite being the son, grandson, and great-grandson of wine farm owners—on the very same estate, no less—Tertius and his siblings were told in no uncertain terms that they needed a completely unrelated tertiary degree before being allowed anywhere near the family business: Stellenrust Wine Estate. So, off he went to study dentistry.

His brother studied to be an accountant—an obvious asset to a family business. Tertius’s dalliance with dentistry, however, was harder to justify. As he tells it, he chose dentistry for the promise of wealth and a flexible schedule… but no one warned him about spending a lifetime staring down people’s throats. He hated the degree, but still stuck it out for six years—more, he jokes, because he enjoyed student life than out of any deep well of discipline.

And this is what we love about Tertius. His self-effacing manner and quirky humour are the perfect disguise for what lies underneath—a fiercely intelligent, curious, and ambitious mind with a clear passion for winemaking (and the chemistry it takes to do it well). He once quoted ex-Mulderbosch winemaker André Dobrovic as having told him:

“If you stop learning, you die.”

It’s a mindset he’s carried ever since. That philosophy—of constant evolution, of never settling—defines Stellenrust today. Tertius is always testing, tweaking, tasting. The wines don’t stand still. And that’s exactly why they keep getting better.

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If you have yet to sign up for your Monthly HanDrinksSolo Wine Subscription then you’ll have to hunt this wine down in your own to be able to connect the info to the wine in the bottle. But until then, I’ve left you some tasting notes and technical specs.