Graham Beck is a household name in South Africa, mostly for the wines produced by their estate in Robertson. While visiting the farm to taste some of the famous bubbly, none of us knew who the man behind the farm was.

So I told the others that I will read up before I blog about the farm. Here goes:

He grew up in Cape Town and during his first year at UCT, he failed academically and his dad told him that he is not going to pay for his university fees any more. So, Graham borrowed £250 from his mom to start a home renovation business and called it Kangra (the name was derived from his own name and that of his carpenter partner, Kannemeyer).

He then moved into coal mining, acquiring many mines in KZN and pioneering the centralised transportation of coal exports through Richards Bay. Once he established his fortune with the Kanga group, he made huge investments into his two great passions, wine and thoroughbred horses. He owned South Africa’s leading thoroughbred breeding farm Highlands and well as other farms around the world. Beck’s billionaire status was publicly confirmed in 2006 when he sold 60% of the coal operation to a Spanish group.