Lessons Learnt On A Wine Farm

Reyneke Wines was among the first organic wineries in South Africa to receive a five-star rating in Platter’s Wine Guide. Owner Johan Reyneke spoke to Glenneis Kriel about his long and often challenging journey to establish a successful chemical-free wine grape operation.

Johan Reyneke, the owner of Reyneke Wines, had great aspirations when he started looking after a few rows of a vineyard on his family’s small farm near Stellenbosch in the late 1990s. After studying philosophy, he had come to believe that humans are merely part of the natural order, rather than being superior to it, and this inspired him to find ways to work with nature, instead of against it, in his farming.

Since then, his area under production has grown to 125ha, which includes rented land. More impressively, he has managed to build up his soils’ humus levels from a mere 0,9% to 4,3%, and increase soil pH levels without adding lime.

Improved soil health has also influenced the quality of the wine produced on the farm, resulting in the price of some of his wines increasing from R300 to R500 a bottle in the past few years.

“The vines are no longer fed, but are forced to find their nourishment from the soil. The vineyards, in effect, are much less homogeneous, requiring us to harvest and treat different parts of the vineyard differently. But this is what the art of winemaking is all about: you’re not producing a uniform product,” he says.

Achieving these results has not always been smooth sailing. His problems started when, idealistically, he stopped using chemical fertilisers and pesticides during his first year of farming.

“Having worked as a farm labourer for extra money during my studies, I experienced the negative impact of these products first hand. So, besides the negative environmental consequences, I also didn’t want my labourers to work in a toxic environment,” he recalls.

His noble intentions backfired; the condition of the vines deteriorated, production was almost non-existent, and weeds took over.

“I felt very sorry for myself. It was obvious Mother Nature didn’t share my love for her,” he jokes.