Bush-Vine Wine

16years agoMost wine producers make use of trellised vines to produce their grapes, but this wine farmer from the Western Cape grew his grapes along bush vines to save on labour and water costs.

In 1992, Ernst and Gwenda Gouws bought the farm Hoopenburg near Stellenbosch. The farm was uncultivated and did not have any access to water. Fortunately, the Gouwses’ farm had heavy, absorbent clay soils, so the average rainfall for the area, which is approximately 600ml per year, would be enough to sustain the bush vines Ernst was planning to cultivate.

Bush vines bear less fruit than trellised vines, Ernst explains, and consequently require less water. The production of trellised vines can be adjusted so the plant requires less water, but this increases the need for physical labour as one has to remove unnecessary plant material regularly.

Despite the increased labour costs and need for ongoing maintenance of trellised vine cultivation, the construction of these vines is also at least two-thirds more expensive than establishing bush vines.

“So, even though I have smaller yields with bush vines, I have a higher profit because my overheads and input costs are lower than what they would have been with trellised vines,” Ernst says.