Pilot Blog - Siegfried Grieve

The #66 Cranfields Wine Evolution class throttleman talks about his passion for a variety of professions - especially powerboat racing and wine

Coming out of high school, my first idea was to study medicine and anthropology, but I soon got involved in the building industry. I had to earn money for cars and girls! So, I started working on building sites. I didn’t have any formal education in the building business, but I was always excited by it because I love mathematics and physics.

From my early beginnings, my main business now is property development. We do everything from developing plots of land from scratch to renovating old existing buildings to rent out, to working on projects such as the 75,000-seat Hamburg stadium in 1998 and 1999.

On the side, though, I’ve been interested and involved in building boats for some years. I’ve always had a passion for the sea. Since I was two years old, I’ve spent my holidays on the coast, spending every day on boats. You can send me to the desert, the mountains or the forest, but I’ll always be truly happiest if I’m on water.

My building business was one of the first to work with computers for design. We’ve had architects working on construction programmes for years, so it’s actually very easy to plan anything on the computer. We’ve got a company in Poland – in the old Konrad shipyard – doing the glass fibre and Kevlar work, and the business has grown and got faster so we can currently afford to build two boats at the same time.

In 2006, I was a guest at the Powerboat P1 race at Travemunde in Germany. I thought: “If the rest of the world is able to build a boat and race it, then so can I”. Racing in Powerboat P1 is the biggest pleasure I’ve ever had.

If something excites me, then I just jump into it and do it. I don’t just stick to what I have and what I do – I’m always looking for new challenges. Alongside the property development business, I run a computer database firm and a fitness centre, and we’d like to develop our own engines for our boats one day. So, I’m never afraid of new challenges!

To keep doing new things from scratch is a much bigger challenge and more exciting than studying something and then doing it for years. I’m very greedy for new information, so if I want to be involved in something I’m happy doing it from the ground – the basics – upwards. I also like to work with people. If I don’t know something, I work with experts who are highly qualified and learn fast. We have a small, but close-knit team who work on all the projects together.

My first taste of the wine industry came on a visit to South Africa. I’ve always loved wine – I’m a big fan of white wines, but my true passion is for red wines. There’s nothing like sitting back in the evening with a good meal and enjoying a great glass of red wine. It’s one of the truly great joys of life.

I had some friends who regularly visited the Cape region and, with them, I learned to love the region and its wines. In 1998, I got involved in the Cranefields Wine business as a partner with a small share, but – when I saw the business growing fast, and the opportunities we could have – I increased my investment significantly.

At Cranefields Wine, we focus on growing and producing our products as naturally as possible. We try to avoid anything artificial in the process. We harvest by hand very carefully, the wines are stored in good French and American oak for 40 months and we don’t filter the wine when we bottle it. This means it has a very pure and natural taste. In the mouth, you have a nice feeling of a round wine, with a strong berry taste.

I like the fruitiness and full mouth of the South African wines, but they can sometimes have too much alcohol and can be too sweet, so we’re lowering this down and balancing it to European tastes and trends. I’m a big fan of French wines and, to get that combination of French influence on South African wines is a big dream for me. It’s that combination that makes it extraordinary, and it’s a good goal to reach.

The European market is the biggest challenge for us to conquer. We’ve established a lot of contacts now, and we’re talking about a major importing of wine from South Africa. We’ve also established links in Singapore and the Far-East. I’m not afraid that, after a while, we’ll have a big market for the whole year’s production – our yearly harvest of 350 tonnes – to be sold out. On day, when I retire, it would be nice to live out there for half a year.