Proof of Life®

The story of the Courtney family in the Cape Winelands is ever evolving, but what remains the same is the compelling sense of proof of life.

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On their farm in Wellington, 75 km northeast of Cape Town, the family’s lives converge in an unlikely combination of wine, wild Fynbos, hostage negotiation, portraiture and adventure.

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Mark Courtney is a hostage negotiator who has secured the release of more than 50 kidnap victims across the African continent. Yet his most enduring stories are not necessarily the ones he tells about those encounters. They emerge at the kitchen table, over a bottle of the family’s Cabernet Sauvignon, where cooking for friends and family has become his own form of Proof of Life.

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His wife, Giselle, has spent years exploring another kind of story: the extraordinary botanical world beyond the vineyard. Founder of South African Fynbos®, she has developed a culinary collection of herbs, seasonings and teas that brings the distinctive flavours of the Cape Floristic Region to the table. Fynbos also informs her work as an organisational development specialist, where she explores the relationship between nature, sensory experience and human potential.

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The vineyard is Mark’s domain; the surrounding Fynbos, Giselle’s. He cultivates a single vineyard and produces a small-scale, collectible Cabernet Sauvignon. She works with wild botanicals, transforming their complex flavours into a distinctly South African culinary vocabulary.

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Their two children, now grown, have been shaped by the same landscape in different ways. Their daughter, Ceilidh, is a portrait artist and Jungian coach. Their son, Dominic, is an adventure guide and mixologist, equally at home on the mountain trails and behind a bar experimenting with Fynbos botanicals.

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It is a family in which the boundaries between work, place and life are unusually porous. The vineyard becomes a wine; the wild vegetation becomes flavour; a mountain walk becomes an exploration; a family meal becomes a gathering place for stories.

 

For Mark, Proof of Life is also a philosophy. He often quotes the Pericles adage: "what is left behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others."

On this farm, that idea feels less like an aphorism than a way of life.

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The proof is in the wine. In the Fynbos. In the stories. And, most of all, around the table.​

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Proof of Life® Wine Tasting

Spend an intriguing few hours in conversation with one of the world's foremost hostage negotiators, who celebrates proof of life crafting a highly collectible Cabernet Sauvignon. 

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Mark Courtney's reputation as a trusted advisor to Fortune 500 companies is grounded in more than 30 years of crisis management support in some of the world's most unpredictable and hostile environments. He is an engaging speaker and his lived experience as a kidnap for ransom responder, executive protection specialist and 'on the ground conservationist' is fascinating. He is a recipient of the Rotary International Paul Harris Fellowship Award for outstanding community service.

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As you enjoy a vertical tasting of this single vineyard Proof of Life® Cabernet Sauvignon, you share the journey from negotiating for lives in some of the world's most hostile environments to creating a wine that celebrates the enduring value of life. Each vintage is named after a major kidnapping case.

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Set within the timeless landscape of the Cape floral kingdom - where nature has perfected the art of renewal over millions of years - this is a rare opportunity to reflect on the thin line between life and death and celebrate what it truly means to be alive. 

 

Proof of Life® Experience

Some places change how you see the world. Some people change how you experience it.

The Proof of Life® Experience brings both together: three nights in a private mountain sanctuary in the Cape Winelands, hosted by the Courtney family - a hostage negotiator, a culinary Fynbos specialist, a portrait artist and an adventure guide.

Through their distinct perspectives, the landscape becomes deeply personal. Discover its flavours, notice its finer details and explore the connections between place, creativity and the choices that shape a life. Shared meals and unhurried conversations create space for curiosity, reflection and the pleasure of good company.

Intimate and personally hosted, this is an invitation to step beyond familiar routines and recover something easily lost in the demands of everyday life: the feeling of being fully present, engaged and alive.​​

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Enquire +27(0)84 447 3553

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