When is a glass neither red nor white?  When it’s green, of course! 

The South African wine industry has always been among the most forward-thinking industries in the country.  Long before formal Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) programmes were adopted by the government, farmers in the Western Cape were already launching schemes whereby farm labourers were trained in the art of winemaking and went on to make their own wines from grapes grown on sections of their employers’ estates.  Many of these wines are now bottled and proudly sold alongside the estates’ premier labels, and fare exceptionally well at blind tastings. Which is socially extremely commendable – but what about the green credentials of the wine industry?  
We are all familiar with the trend in food marketing to emphasise the product or the producer’s ethical credentials.  Coffee and bananas need to be Fair Trade.  Food needs to be grown locally as opposed to being flown halfway around the planet. We demand that our produce is organic, biodynamic and preferably carbon-neutral.  But how many of us actually ask those questions when we are standing in a supermarket trying to decide between two bottles of wine?  Growing numbers of us, according to pioneering South African winemakers.  To read the rest of the article, check out the Spring Issue of WE Magazine for Women – A Tribute to Mother Nature.

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