A toast to Hopewell's first harvest

A pilot vineyard project at Hopewell Conservation Estate on the outskirts of Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape, has achieved its goal of bottling its first harvest.

- Carin Venter

Hopewell Conservation Estate is both a lifestyle residential and retirement estate, and a retreat for local and international tourists. It offers luxury accommodation, a host of outdoor activities, and a variety of game (excluding the Big Five).

Kevin Taylor has been the general manager at Hopewell for the past eight and a half years. He explains that the longterm vision for the pilot vineyard project on the estate is to produce a minimal intervention wine – a winemaking approach where there is as little interference as possible.

“Currently we also keep some hardy and free-roaming Nguni cattle with the intent to produce veld-reared beef. The area is well-known for heartwater, but to date we have kept an open system with a very healthy herd.”

Giving it a bash

Kevin explains that, since the estate has a similar latitude and longitude as the Cape Winelands with very comparable environmental and soil conditions, they decided to launch a pilot project for a vineyard approximately three years ago.

“The 2ha vineyard consists of two cultivars, Semillon and Shiraz. We opted for these two based on advice from our consultants, primarily because these vines are quite hardy, giving us the best chance to produce grapes for good wine. It also affords us several options to produce variations such as rosé, bubbly or blends.”