It was interesting to read Cape winemaker Ken Forrester's comment in a recent email to Jancis: "We've researched 'regenerative viticulture' and are currently lobbying SAWIS [the wine industry body] to recognise and audit these processes with a view to some sort of public statement on the label going forward – I do believe we'll succeed without creating a new 'silo' or committee or group – SA has truly led the world in regenerative viti and we've just never looked at including these practices in our annual IPW audits. I do believe that with the existing structures in place we can use this accreditation to communicate good news and sound principles with our wine buying public."
It's a bold claim, coming from a country which has very few organically certified vineyards and wineries, and a country dogged by the long wake of the social injustices of its past.
However, according to SWSA (Sustainable Wine South Africa), whose sustainability certification (the first in the world) can be found on the capsules of many South African wines, for more than two decades the South African wine industry has been actively working towards sustainability from the ground up, partly to protect the precious, rare Cape Floral Kingdom (within which 95% of South Africa's vineyards are planted), but also to help conserve the equally precious resource of water and to reduce the climate impact of wine production in South Africa. It could be argued that this approach, rather than the rigid rules-based systems of organic and biodynamic certification, could be more progressive.
What then of the social issues? Just a week ago, Jancis wrote South African catch-up, looking at the rate of equality transformation in the wine industry. Two notable women she mentioned were Natasha Williams and Praisy Dlamini. I had a chance to meet them, virtually, but before I go further, some context...
In 2018, we watched with heavy hearts as the poster child for post-apartheid integration and restitution, Solms-Delta, fell apart, leaving a bitter taste in many mouths.
I spent hours trying to investigate what had happened and why. It was a desperately complicated, heart-breaking, messy story in which politics and corrupt bureaucracy played no small part, and for which, it seems, there is still no ending.
In August 2021, the South African newspaper Weekend Argus reported that "workers at a ground-breaking land reform project in Franschhoek have not received salaries for more than two months as operations have ground to a halt." When the South African government failed to provide the R65 million promised for their 50% share of the business (the workers getting 45%), it was placed under business rescue. But it appears that the auditing firm who took over, Tayfin, simply sold off wine stock to keep the business going and then shrugged, blaming the Department of Agriculture, Rural Development and Land Reform for not providing enough funds.
The last time that Solms-Delta wines appeared in the extremely detailed Platter Guide was 2019 [although founder neuroscientist Mark Solms could be heard recently in this edition of the BBC Radio 3 classical-music programme Private Passions – JR].
So, I was interested but somewhat wary when, along with a couple of Bosman samples, I was sent a link to a Fairtrade Bosman Adama inspiring video clip and a pdf brochure about the Bosman Family Vineyards' "social responsibility commitments". Was this about looking good? Slick marketing? Patronising white patriarchy in order to keep the government's hands off large tracts of family-owned farmland?
The Bosmans are a wealthy and influential family. They've owned the Groenfontein farm in Wellington since 1810, and made wine on the farm until 1957, when Petrus Bosman decided to focus on his thriving vine nursery business.
The eighth-generation Petrus Bosman decided he wanted to make wine, so he renovated their 270-year-old wine cellar and in 2007 released their first wines. (Their nursery business is still one of the most important in the Cape, run by another Bosman brother.)
And then the current Petrus Bosman made a radical decision.
In 2009, it was announced that the Bosman family had given their 260 full-time workers a 26% stake in the entire family business – this included co-ownership of 430 ha of farmland, vineyards, winemaking, and the nursery business. The Adama Trust is owned by Bosman's staff of colour, many of them members of families who have worked on the estate for generations. Bosman's website states that "To date it is the largest land reform transaction in the history of the South African wine industry".
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