Biodiversity and sustainability at Weltevrede

Sowing wild oats at Weltevrede

Yesterday while walking through our vineyards I had an interesting discussion with vitiulturist Francois Viljoen on how farming phylosophy has changed over time. I think in the past if you asked a farmer what he farms with, he would say sheep or vineyards or apples. But nowadays we are all coming to understand that primarily we farm with nature. Secondarily with vines or other produce. Monocultures of manicured vines on barren soils are making way for a phylosophy of living soils where much focus is put on the protection of the microbiological activity and diversity amongst the vines. Not all weeds are bad and our industry is researching different cover crops to enhance life in our soils. Although some sow commercial oats or barley the ideal is to use a natural cover crop amongst the vines. Although Weltevrede is blessed with a history over four generations of ‘green’ practices it was only in the past three years that we have noticed the natural wild oats growing in our vineyards. In stead of spraying or cutting it we have decided to leave it to produce seeds and every season we notice a greater proportion of our land covered with this natural green carpet. This year we shall harvest the seeds so we can establish it in vineyards further afield as well and eventually surrounding farmers will also benefit from it. We have noticed much more activity in our vineyards. Ladybirds are returning, small birds, birds of prey as well as small predators. We are now farming with the soil, the beautifully created terroir of Weltevrede.

Minding our step

The wines of Weltevrede are served in countries all over the globe and to open a bottle of Weltevrede in Canada, Namibia, Germany or Hong Kong requires thousands of kilometers of transport by road, by sea and sometimes by air. Lighter weight bottles would limit the carbon footprint and for this reason we are bottling the River’s Edge wines in eco-friendly light weight glass. 

                                                                            -Philip Jonker

 

 
                                    *New lightweight bottle on lefthand side --->
                                      Something small can make a big difference