“A serious business that is also a lot of fun too”

Winnie Bowman is a Cape Wine Master and has been judging wine since 2005. An academician through and through, Winnie started as a physiotherapist, then developed an interest in occupational health, completed a Masters in Biomedical Sciences at UCT and ended with a PhD in Didactics at Stellenbosch University.

Winnie has brought her same enthusiasm for learning to wine. She earned an Evaluation of Port from Stellenbosch University department of Viticulture and Oenology in 2007, her Cape Wine Master Diploma from the Institute of Cape Wine Masters in 2008. Then her CWM in 2008 and then two wine judging certificates in 2009, one of them for Evaluation of Red, White and Fortified Wine from Stellenbosch University, and the other from the Wine Tasting Academy of the Graduate School of Business at UCT.

Winnie has also judged wine for Veritas, the John Platter Wine Guide, CTICC Wine Selection and the Breedekloof Wine & Food Show.
Winnie works as an industry occupational health consultant; teaches ergonomics part-time at Stellenbosch Medical School, as well as international wine for the hotel school programme of Varsity College.

For such a busy lady, what are her memorable moments? The ones that stand out, she says, are the first time she judged for the John Platter Guide panel and every Monday evening selecting Wine-of-the-Month Club wines—“A serious business that is also a lot of fun too.”
Finding time to relax is few and far between, but when she does, Winnie enjoys travelling to winemaking countries and reading, writing, experimenting in the kitchen, photography, being the social secretary and personal taxi driver for her young son—and of course learning about any new subject that pops up on her radar screen.