Aberdeen’s award-winning wine bar and retail proprietor, SugarBird Wines, will be welcoming extraordinary South African winemaker, Helgard van Schalkwyk, to Scotland this month.
Helgard is the latest international winemaker to make the journey to Aberdeen for SugarBird’s hugely popular Meet the Winemaker event series. Visiting from the award-winning Nitida Wine Farms (Nitida) in Cape Town, Helgard will host two unique events at SugarBird Wines, giving guests the chance to try their acclaimed wine selection, learn about Helgard’s winemaking process, and hear more about his fascinating career spanning almost two decades.
On the 17th of June, Helgard will be hosting an intimate wine tasting at SugarBird in the Gardens, a destination-style venue in the heart of Aberdeen’s city centre. Guided by Helgard, guests will try a selection of Nitida wines while learning about their minimal intervention process and the vibrant flavours that result from this sustainable winemaking method. The following evening, there will be a Nitida Wines bar takeover at SugarBird Union Grove. At this free event, Helgard will be pouring some of his favourite Nitida creations while sharing stories about life as a winemaker in South Africa.
SugarBird Wines Sales, Marketing & Creative Director, Ruth Grahame, adds: “Nitida Wine Farms is one of our favourites to visit when in Cape Town, so we’re over the moon to be welcoming Helgard to our beautiful city. As their exclusive Scottish importer, we have worked closely with the team at Nitida for many years now and we're always excited to see what the new vintage reveals!
“Wine tastings have garnered a reputation for being intimidating spaces, but at SugarBird Wines, this couldn’t be further from the truth. We’re proud of the approachable atmosphere we’ve curated through our calendar of events, which bridge expert knowledge from the industry’s finest winemakers with a safe space for curiosity and new experiences.”
Bookings for Helgard’s hosted wine tasting can be made on the SugarBird Wines website.