Jan Boone is a seasoned business leader with a passion for quality, craftsmanship and business growth, now taking on the role of co-owner of Colmant Cap Classique and Champagne.

Since 2011, Jan has led Lotus Bakeries Group as CEO, overseeing its evolution into a global, listed, family-owned business active in over 60 countries. With a portfolio spanning indulgent and natural snacking, Lotus is home to iconic brands such as Biscoff®, BEAR®, nākd®. Under his leadership, turnover grew from EUR 276 million to over EUR 1 billion by 2023, and the company now employs around 3,000 people globally.

Jan began his career at PwC before joining Omega Pharma, where he gained strategic and M&A experience as part of the Executive Committee and Board of Directors. He joined Lotus Bakeries in 2005 as General Manager and Director, quickly building a reputation for visionary leadership.

Beyond his corporate roles, Jan is Vice President and Shareholder of Club Brugge, a board member of Tomorrowland‘s events company, and served as Chairman of Animal Care Group (2017 – 2024).

With a legacy rooted in building premium brands and delivering excellence at scale, Jan brings his expertise to the world of Cap Classique, championing Colmant’s commitment to timeless elegance and artisanal mastery in every bottle.

Isabelle Maes brings deep expertise, strategic vision, and a passion for premium products to her role as co-owner of Colmant Cap Classique and Champagne.

With a strong foundation in finance, management, and global brand building, Isabelle currently serves as Chief Marketing Officer of Lotus Bakeries Group, a global, listed, family-owned food company. She is also CEO of its Natural Foods division, where she drives international growth for well-loved natural snacking brands such as BEAR®, nākd®, Kiddylicious® and TREK®

Isabelle began her career in auditing with PwC before joining Barry Callebaut in 2001, where she held key roles in finance and SAP implementation. In 2006, she was appointed Finance Officer for Barry Callebaut Belgium. She joined Lotus Bakeries in 2014 as CFO, later stepping into executive leadership as CEO of Natural Foods in 2017 and CMO of the Group in 2023 – shaping strategic direction and global marketing efforts across the business.

Isabelle also serves on the Board of Directors of Van de Velde, the renowned Belgian lingerie house. Her combined experience in finance, operations, and brand strategy brings a distinctive edge to Colmant’s next chapter.

With a passion for craftsmanship, innovation, and building enduring brands, Isabelle is proud to help shape Colmant’s future – where timeless elegance meets modern ambition.

Paul Gerber’s journey to Cap Classique mastery began in an unexpected place: the mathematics classroom.

Some paths to wine are straight. Paul’s began with a gift — a wine course from his future mother-in-law — and the rest, as they say, was inevitable.

A trained teacher with a natural gift for numbers, Paul found in wine something he hadn’t expected: a discipline where mathematics, chemistry, and sensory intuition converge in ways that are endlessly complex and endlessly rewarding. That discovery changed everything. He left the classroom behind and enrolled in Viticulture and Oenology at Stellenbosch University, beginning what would become a deeply deliberate pursuit of sparkling wine.

What followed was an education that could only happen in the cellar. Paul moved through harvests in Franciacorta, through the steep slopes of Rhineland-Pfalz, and ultimately to Le Mesnil-sur-Oger — one of Champagne’s most hallowed villages, where the chalk speaks and the wines listen. It was there, working alongside seasoned Champenois artisans, that he absorbed the quiet discipline of méthode traditionnelle: the understanding that great sparkling wine is not made quickly, and not made carelessly, but built — layer by layer, year by year — with patience as its most essential ingredient.

Today, as Managing Director of Colmant Cap Classique, Paul partners with Jan and Isabelle Boone to guide the estate’s continued evolution. Alongside winemaker Kalissa, he leads with a commitment to precision, terroir, and the kind of restless curiosity that keeps a winemaker honest. Every bottle that leaves Colmant carries something of that journey — from a classroom in South Africa to the chalky heart of Champagne, and back again.

Kalissa de Kok is a rising talent in the world of Cap Classique, bringing fresh perspective, skill, and passion to the Colmant cellar.

Some people find wine. Kalissa went looking for it — deliberately, restlessly, and with the kind of quiet determination that takes a person across four continents before they’re twenty-five.

She earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Oenology from the prestigious Elsenburg Agricultural Institute, graduating in the top five percent of her faculty and receiving the Best Cellar Student Scholarship for 2022. It was here that her fascination with sparkling wine took root — shaped in part by time spent with Cap Classique experts, including Colmant’s own winemaker Paul Gerber, whose guidance left a lasting impression on how she understood the patience, precision, and philosophy behind traditional method production.

But Kalissa has never been content to learn from one angle alone. Since graduating, she has moved through harvests at some of the Cape’s most formative cellars with intention — each chosen not for convenience, but for what it could teach her. From the ancient bush-vines of Malgas at Sijnn to the meticulous craft of Boekenhoutskloof in Franschhoek, she has built a winemaking vocabulary that is as broad as it is deeply felt. As Cap Classique winemaker for Elsenburg Cellar during her final year, she led a team of fourteen and bottled 2,850 litres of Blanc de Blanc and Rosé — learning, as she puts it, that accountability and craft are inseparable.

Fluent in English and Afrikaans, and with French a work in progress she is quietly committed to mastering, Kalissa brings a rare internationalism to her understanding of wine — shaped by years of living in Dubai, Rotterdam, and South Africa. It is a perspective that informs not just how she makes wine, but how she thinks about it.

Today, she works alongside Paul and the Colmant cellar team, where her growing expertise, her instinct for detail, and her genuine reverence for Cap Classique help shape every bottle with care, craft, and a shared vision for something truly worth celebrating.

With a warm personality and a genuine love for connecting with people, Sonique brings both heart and expertise to her role at Colmant.

A Biomedical Sciences graduate from UNISA — where she achieved cum laude while working full-time — Sonique’s academic discipline and her hands-on experience in the wine industry come together in a way that makes her a truly unique addition to the team.

Her past role as a Laboratory Analyst & Quality Control Intern gave her a deep appreciation for the craft and science behind exceptional sparkling wine — and this year, she took that curiosity even further, rolling up her sleeves during harvest and experiencing firsthand the full arc of winemaking from vine to bottle. It’s that rare combination of scientific grounding and cellar instinct that makes her understanding of the wines she presents genuinely authentic. Yet for all her versatility, it is people where Sonique truly comes alive. Some are simply meant to make others feel seen. Sonique is one of them.

Behind the scenes, Sonique brings the same care and precision to the administrative and logistical side of the business — managing imports and exports with an eye for detail and an understanding that the seamless movement of exceptional wine is its own form of service.

Driven by her love for community, the land, and the art of winemaking, Sonique sees each interaction as a chance to do something a little more than what’s expected — to notice, to personalise, to delight. Because at Colmant, the goal has never simply been to impress. It’s been to make people feel, genuinely and unmistakably, that they matter.

Schalk’s journey with Colmant Cap Classique has been one defined by passion, precision, and a steadfast commitment to crafting exceptional sparkling wines.

There are people who work at a place, and there are people who belong to it. Schalk belongs to Colmant.

His connection to the estate runs deeper than a job title — it is rooted in years of hands-on experience, a genuine belief in what Colmant represents, and the kind of quiet institutional knowledge that only comes from truly caring about a place and its people. He understands the brand not just as a product, but as a philosophy — one built on patience, precision, and an unwavering pursuit of excellence.

After time away gaining valuable industry perspective, Schalk returns with renewed energy and an even sharper appreciation for the art of Cap Classique. That time away, rather than distancing him from Colmant, only deepened his understanding of what makes the estate singular. As he puts it himself: “My passion for this brand has only grown stronger during my time away, and I am eager to contribute to its continued success.”

Today, Schalk oversees cellar door experiences and sales at Colmant — the twin pillars where the wine meets the world. He understands intuitively that the moment a guest steps through the door is as important as what fills their glass, and he brings the same care and intention to every visit that Paul and Kalissa bring to every bottle. For Schalk, excellence is not reserved for the cellar — it lives in every conversation, every tasting, and every detail that turns a visitor into a lifelong Colmant devotee.

Bringing both institutional knowledge and a forward-thinking spirit, his return signals a new chapter for Colmant — one where tradition meets momentum, and where the team around the table is as strong as the wine on it.