Lee Launches Whobody Wine

Kara Lee ’20
Winemaker/Graphic Designer/Photographer
Major/Minor: Art (Graphic Design Concentration); Business 

What drew you to South Africa?

A love for travel, a bit of delusion, and wine!

As a traveling winemaker, you alternate between hemispheres to work at wineries during their harvest season. I was in the middle of my Northern Hemisphere harvest at Troon Vineyard in Oregon in October 2023 and was applying for Southern Hemisphere positions. I saw an ad on a Facebook group for Saronsberg Winery in Tulbagh, South Africa. I applied, had an interview, got the job the same day, and never looked back.

A few months later, I landed in Cape Town, met my now partner, Tristan, on our first day at work (we were both interns), and my life changed forever. He’s a South African winemaker, so we currently live between the USA and Cape Town. I may be biased, but I can confidently say that South Africa is one of my favorite countries and places I’ve lived.

Do you have a favorite thing about living in South Africa?

Oh, so many things! Cape Town is one of my favorite cities in the world. It has EVERYTHING: gorgeous mountains, pristine beaches, world-class wine regions, a hopping art scene, top notch cuisine, Cape Dutch architecture, crazy wildlife, an incredibly diverse culture, and the most genuine, kind people. Did I miss anything?

There is also a great work-life balance. People focus on truly enjoying life and spending time outdoors among the beautiful scenery and natural landscape the Western Cape has to offer.

It’s a place where anyone can find their place and feel at home because there is so much variety.

How did you get into winemaking?

Have you ever had one of those “sliding door” or “butterfly effect” moments that completely altered the course of your life? For me, this was mine:

I moved to Australia in August 2022 on a work and holiday visa. Two weeks after landing in Queensland, my friend convinced me to road trip with her from Western Australia back to Queensland. I flew to Margaret River, Western Australia, only to find out her car just broke down and would take a month to fix. Now I was stuck in this random small town with no job, no plan, and nowhere to live, but I had to figure it out.

As part of the work and holiday visa, you’re required to do 88 days of farmwork if you want to apply for a second visa. Margaret River is a wine region, so I decided to get some of those farm days out of the way by working on a vineyard. One Facebook post and 10 minutes later, I had a job working for Corymbia Wine on their small, family-owned, organic vineyard.

I never did the road trip.

What started as a temporary four-week job that I was doing solely for the visa turned into a full year working for Corymbia and in the wine industry in Margaret River, taking courses and studying, and starting my career as a travel winemaker.

I’ve never been so grateful for a car breaking down.

What inspired you to create your own wine/brand?

Since meeting Tristan as winemaking interns in South Africa, we talked about how we wanted to have our own wine brand someday. We are both adventurous and risk-takers, we value flexibility, and we love the creative process that winemaking involves. We also both enjoy the idea of working for ourselves and really having that room to grow, experiment, and push the potential within ourselves.

From the get-go of our relationship, we started experimenting with our own small batch wines. Then, we officially launched our business in April 2025 with two of our very own wines under the label Whobody Wines — a Skin Contact Sauvignon Blanc and a Skin Contact Viognier. One barrel of each, 700 bottles in total … a small production, but every step was done with my hands and with trust in gravity flow.

The brand has already caught quite the traction, being listed in eight bars/shops/markets around Cape Town and a few wine judges highlighting it via their platforms. It’s really cool that we’ve just put ourselves out there with no real expectations, and it’s been met with such welcoming and open arms. It makes me so grateful to the Cape Town community for being so receptive and open to supporting and uplifting these new, small producers like us.

We’ll see how it continues to grow and evolve from here! We’re so excited for what’s to come and to hopefully get our wines into the USA someday.

Growing up, I always heard about the ‘Whobody’ story.

Your late grandfather, the Rev. Dr. Carl Lee ’52, was Concordia’s first campus pastor. Do you remember when you learned about his legendary “Whobody” sermon? What does it mean to you?

Growing up, I always heard about the “Whobody” story as it was talked about between family members and people who knew him. They would always come back to the fact that Carl’s voice was so soothing he could instantly calm anyone who heard it.

He passed away when I was 4 years old, so his voice isn’t something I really remember, but I always thought it was sweet that his voice was the thing people held onto about him.

It was my first-ever finals week, and I was in the atrium studying. It was past midnight, and I felt very overwhelmed. For some reason, I thought of my grandpa and opened YouTube to search for the audio recording of Carl telling the story. I went up into his chapel on the second floor and listened to it. I was instantly mesmerized and calmed by his voice — just like everyone had said. It felt like a warm hug. It made me feel like everything was going to be OK and was a good reminder that even though exams felt like the biggest deal in the world in college, it was the people you’re meeting and forming relationships with that impact you the most.

Having been so young when he passed away, that night was such a meaningful moment to me because it felt like I was getting a piece of him back that I never was able to have.

What made you decide to come to Concordia?

Concordia is the college that most of my family attended and even worked at. My grandpa was the very first campus pastor, taught psychology, and was a counselor to students and staff. My dad and sister were both campus photographers, my uncle played football, and my mom worked in financial aid. It made sense to go to Concordia.

But because Concordia is in my hometown, I initially wanted to go somewhere different since I love traveling and wanted to try living somewhere different. I toured 10 colleges both in state and out of state, but I ultimately kept coming back to what Concordia had to offer, specifically the amazing study abroad opportunities. I also loved the fact that I had such a personal tie to the campus, so it felt homey and comforting.

Do you have a favorite Cobber memory?

Honestly, the COVID lockdown during the last couple months of my senior year holds some of my favorite memories.

Despite it being a crazy and scary time, I was living with three of my best friends. We all had different majors and schedules during college, so we rarely had uninterrupted time together. Lockdown gave us that time to really soak in those last moments of college and focus on what mattered — the friends made, dreaming about the future, and feeling like a kid before the world got a little more scary and unknown after graduation.

In the walls of that house, we celebrated Easter, my birthday, played way too much Mario Kart Wii, laughed harder than we ever had, had picnics on the front lawn, went on daily walks around the neighborhood, and cried over the nostalgia we knew we were already living in. It’s something I’ll cherish forever.

Did you have a favorite class or professor or defining moment?

Chris Mortenson, this paragraph is dedicated to you.

Within my art major, I took Chris’s intro to photography and intermediate photography courses. I had photography experience prior, but this really pushed my skills and the way I thought about photography as an art.

Chris called out my skill in such a way that actually made me confident and start to really believe in my talent. The projects we did in that class inspired so much of my professional photography work after college, specifically working with color theory, landscapes, creative portraits, and unique compositions.

His classes were always my favorite to go to, and I consider him a friend to this day.

Thank you, Chris, for instilling your photography passion onto others, and teaching technical skills while encouraging creativity outside the lines.

How does what you learned at Concordia influence your life now?

I think the great thing about Concordia is it teaches you to be curious, ambitious, and versatile. Concordia holds students to high standards, encourages growth and trying new things, and offers amazing study abroad opportunities.

Through being a liberal arts college, Concordia has the foundation to give students the confidence to navigate the outside world, put themselves out there, and always have a community to fall back on whether it’s for advice, support, or to just feel like you belong somewhere.

I also love getting to do “knucks” with others and their Cobber rings … a niche experience I feel grateful to know.

How can Cobbers/friends support Whobody Wines?

Following us on Instagram and engaging with our content is so helpful and appreciated!

Also, you can join our email list to be updated on when we eventually get our wines into the USA.

Our brand story is intertwined with my Grandpa Carl, storytelling, Concordia, and the entire Cobber community, so spreading the word around us and within the community would mean the world.

From Tristan and myself, thank you in advance for any and all support!

^{Published September 2025}