Growing up in Harare, Zimbabwe, Tinashe Nyamudoka had always been ambitious. After losing his parents at 16, his desire for success grew even more, as he now thought he needed to prove himself. However, he did not know where his treasure chest was. While in high school, his business instincts began to kick in when he started selling empty bottles and washing cars for a small fee. Since he had never tasted wine at that time, he did not see himself rising to the top of the white-dominated wine industry, becoming an award-winning sommelier, beating the U.S and U.K in a wine-tasting competition and owning an international wine brand.

“I couldn’t go to University, so I just went straight to work at 18,” Nyamudoka, 36, told Ventures Africa. “I worked in a supermarket. But the management also helped me when they saw that my school grades were good. They enrolled me into a junior management program in the company (now Pick n Pay).” His growth under the company was remarkable: at 21, he was already managing his section in the company. However, his journey took a sharp turn in 2008 when Zimbabwe had an economic meltdown. “There was a mass exodus from the country. The shelves were also empty at the supermarket, so I had to leave for South Africa.”

Tinashe did not have a soft landing in South Africa. Despite being young and experienced, it was hard to get a job doing what he was already good at doing. “Some of them told me bluntly that there was no room for a black manager, even after seeing that I was qualified. Black people weren’t getting jobs as managers. Instead, they’d recommend that we work in a bakery. I did that for a while, but the money was no good. After a while, I noticed that most of the Zimbabweans in Cape town worked in restaurants. I figured they were earning better than us in bakeries, so I went for it.”

Aside from knowing how to hold plates, waiters needed good wine knowledge, neither of which Tinashe had. “I quickly realised that the way to make money working in the restaurant was to sell more, and the only way for that to happen was to know about expensive wines. So I started learning about wine, even visiting wine farms. The more I learned about wine, the more money I made.” But it didn’t take long for him to become passionate about wine. He later became a professional sommelier, working in several cities and winning competitions in South Africa. A passion that started as a medium to earn more from his job soon turned Tinashe into a world-renowned sommelier, featuring in media publications by Reuters and The Guardian. His talent gained international attention in 2017 when he was selected alongside three other Zimbabweans in the World Blind Tasting Championship in France. The four-man team are the first-ever representatives of Zimbabwe to participate in the contest in which competitors use only their palates to identify the variety of grape, country of origin, appellation, vintage and producer of the wines.

In his first year of working with the Test Kitchen restaurant in Cape Town, the restaurant won the best wine service award for the first time in five years. And at this point, it was time for a new challenge. “I started looking for what I could do as a business in the wine industry”, he said. “So I approached my boss and told him I wanted to start a wine program in the restaurant – an in-house wine label. He loved the idea but wanted me to start it as my own instead. That was the light-bulb moment for me to start my wine brand. So I started it as a side project in 2017 with 1,200 bottles, and it took off. People were so excited about it.”

Kumusha, which means ‘home’, ‘roots’ or ‘origin’ in the Zimbabwean Shona language, has a bin of eight wines – three reds, four whites and a rosé- all produced in South Africa. “When I was studying wine, they talked about how wines smelled like blueberries, blackcurrants, raspberries and so on. I had never seen most of these fruits before. But I could always associate their smell with local foods I grew up eating back home in Zimbabwe. So the wine, in a way, reminds me of my upbringing. That’s why I named my brand Kumusha.” The brand has since gone up from those 1,200 bottles to 200,000 bottles a year in different countries, including the United States.

Tinashe Nyamudoka

“My career and business are proof that it’s okay to be ambitious. I never needed any big financial backing to start my business. I never took a business loan. But now we’re well on track to cross one million dollars this year. It’s been pure hustle and networking. Breaking into the American market was difficult, especially because the brand is African. What we have done shows the possibilities for Africans, that we can break into any system by creating value. After the American market received us, we started getting calls from China, India, and other countries. There’s no limitation to what you can create. And we can create global brands from Africa. You don’t have to start big. There’ll be that point where everything eventually starts snowballing”.

However, creating a globally recognised wine brand from Africa is not a walk in the park. Not only is Tinashe competing in a white-dominated industry, but he also has to compete against old money. “The big wineries have been there for generations. Many of them started with their great grandfathers. I, on the other hand, don’t even have a farm. Many times I got asked where my wine farm was. When I told them I didn’t have one, it became challenging for them to accept.” He also acknowledged racial prejudice as a challenge. And when the demand came, he found out that distribution was not so easy. “Imagine sitting on thousands of wine bottles, not knowing how to get them to someone that needs them.” To tackle that, he started Sommoncall, an online wine shop that sells Kumusha Wines to the local South African market, with physical purchasing spots in Zimbabwe and shipping across the globe.

Back home in Zimbabwe, Tinashe sees a “wine revival” happening. “Big companies are now planting vineyards, and I’m doing that too. I’d love to grow and export wine from Zimbabwe. Besides, wine production is just one part of the whole value chain. There’s distribution, retail, e-commerce etc., all of which are expanding. I want to be involved in all of it.”

While ambition and networking are vital ingredients in Tinashe’s story, he has an extra little secret for young entrepreneurs. “I’ve realised that people buy into the idea, the story and the person telling it before they buy any new product. Wine is simply a vehicle for me to tell my story. People buy it because of that story. Any great product that thrives has a story. As a business owner, you need to be able to tell your story through your product.”

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