27 Questions for Elizma Visser; Tim Atkin SA Young Winemaker of the Year 2021
Meet Elizma Visser, recently named Young Winemaker of the Year in Tim Atkin’s SA Special Report 2021. We’ve rounded up a few fun questions to introduce the girl behind the grapes.
1. Do you have a middle name? If not, what would you have chosen for yourself?
No, my parents played around with other names like Nina, Jana etc so maybe one of them I suppose.
2. What’s invisible that you wish people could see?
The yeast cells on grape skins.
3. What does your favourite wine glass look like?
Clean… but I have to say, Gabriel, very versatile all-rounder.
4. What’s the weirdest smell you’ve ever smelled?
Saint Nectaire cheese… funky little fellow.
5. What’s the most ridiculous fact that you know?
Elephants love oranges.
6. What’s more important in wine – aroma or mouthfeel?
Mouthfeel.
7. What is something that you look stupid doing?
Wearing high stilettos. I don't wear them enough to look confident in them.
8. What is the funniest joke you know by heart?
I can’t tell jokes, I am more of an in-the-moment kind of funny. I like seeing the funny in things.
9. Where do you get your news?
CNN / BBC
10. Have you ever covered up a mistake while making wine?
Some mistakes can give added dimension to wine. In the end the best wine is bottled end of story.
11. How do you feel about pineapple on pizza? Banana?
I love it! With lots of garlic, yummy.
12. What part of a kid’s movie completely scarred you?
Old school Witches Movie. When the ladies reveal themselves as being real witches.
13. What’s your favourite type of cheese?
Any cheese that my Father-in-law makes - check out https://www.thekalaharicheesemakingcompany.co.za/
14. Best wine ever tasted?
It's more about the moment or place where I had a special wine. Thinking back to when my husband and I went to Greece and I tasted Assyrtiko for the first time while we were staring over the beautiful ocean with the crashing waves. The wine was fresh and had a beautiful salinity that reminds me of that spot and moment.
15. What is the most embarrassing thing you’ve ever worn?
I don't wear embarrassing outfits really. Sometimes my farm clothes are a bit embarrassing when I go to the grocery store.
16. What’s something that will always be in fashion, no matter how much time passes?
Jeans.
17. What is the weirdest thing you’ve seen in someone else’s home?
Pet snake.
18. What would be the creepiest thing you could say while passing a stranger on the street?
You remind me of my mother.
19. What would the world be like if it was filled with male and female copies of you?
I guess a lot of laughter and flourishing Agriculture.
20. If you were arrested with no explanation, what would your friends and family assume you had done?
Speeding.
21. What’s your favourite, a blend or single variety?
Depends. A blend offers such an incredible experience especially blends that focus on using each variety’s strength. A single variety on the otherhand can be magical when you are able to trace it back to its roots.
22. Who’s the funniest person alive?
My husband is quirky and makes me laugh a lot. I do also love Comedy now and again - the real old school comedy movies.
23. If you could go back 5 years, what would you tell yourself? And what about 15 years?
Don't sweat the small stuff, keep doing what you are doing! Your commitment to your studies and explorative mind will be the foundation of your career.
24. If you were transported 400 years into the past with no clothes or anything else, how would you prove that you were from the future?
I would definitely go to Jan van Riebeeck and explain in my best Dutch how advanced Agriculture has become and maybe showing them some new tricks.
25. If you were wrongfully put into an asylum, how would you convince them that you’re actually sane and not just pretending to be sane?
That’s my worst fear!! Is a polygraph test available?
26. What size shoes do you wear?
7.
27. If you were held at gunpoint and told that if you didn’t impress them with your dance moves you would be killed, what dance moves would you bust out?
I would bust out my best 80s moves.