South Africa has long been one of the great wine-making regions of the world, but it's only relatively recently that the US and Europe have been respecting it as such. Winery-focused tourism is even picking up there, which, you know, probably speaks not just to the wine but also the increasing years of distance between now and apartheid.

Of course, no industry is perfect, and it turns out the South African wine one is actually pretty bad at times: the Human Rights Watch is all over that lately. The problems are race-based, with white landowners essentially treating their black workers like slaves, sometimes even paying them partly in wine.

Now, a tourist could ignore a problem like this. Or, someone visiting South Africa, maybe including a wine country tour in their itinerary, could specifically seek out more progressive wineries to spend their money on.

One such is Stellekaya, a boutique red wine producer in Stellenbosch. They made a huge stride forward a few years back by hiring as their winemaker a brand-new college graduation who happened to be a black woman. It could've been a savvy PR move, but they've had Ntsiki Biyela on stall for over seven years now, so she must be pretty good. (And she is: she's winning tons of awards for the label.)

This is a winery that isn't mired in the old, racist, sexist, horrible ways of doing things. They can't be the only ones accepting progress, so go to South Africa, just do it with open eyes.

[NYT]