Graham Beck Wines

At Graham Beck Wines we firmly believe we have been given an immeasurably precious gift – but with this comes an immense responsibility. The natural land upon which we live, toil and thrive does not belong to us. We are merely custodians of our rich natural fauna and flora.

It is up to us to ensure that this legacy is nurtured and protected, so that it can be passed on to those who follow in our footsteps in the years to come. We are proud to announce that as a producer with Biodiversity Champion Status (only the second wine farm in the Cape to be awarded this coveted accolade) we have proven our deep-seated commitment to conservation and environmentally responsible agricultural practices.

The Biodiversity Wine Initiative (BWI) is a pioneering partnership between the South African wine industry and the conservation sector. Graham Beck Wines has been acknowledged for restoring and preserving large areas of all three major vegetation types found in the Cape Floral Kingdom, namely: fynbos, renosterveld and succulent karoo on its Robertson estate.

Our Conservation Management Plan is a comprehensive programme, which has been approved by the Biodiversity Wine Initiative officials. Our farms and cellars have been awarded IPW (Integrated Production of Wine) Conformance Certificates, which are only issued to those producers committed to growing grapes and producing wine in an environmentally sustainable manner.

The 1,885 hectares of natural vegetation earmarked by GBW comprises almost 50% of our Robertson estate’s 3,800 hectares. Large tracts of land, which had suffered extensive soil erosion damage, have been restored. Together with 28 of our neighbouring farms we are in the process of establishing a conservancy to protect our natural fauna and flora. There are many rare and endangered species in the area. One of the unique plants present on our farm, called Haworthia maraisii (a type of miniature aloe), can be found nowhere else in the world.

The man behind our conservation drive is Mossie Basson. Based on our Robertson estate this committed environmentalist is involved in a number of full time biodiversity projects. “Today the loss of one plant species can lead to a 10- to 30-fold loss of other organisms dependent on it. As the senior species on the planet, Mankind has the moral obligation to preserve all other organisms sharing the earth,” says Mossie.

Various conservancy efforts are yielding tangible results, serving as an example to other wine farms. In 2003 our Robertson estate manager Pieter Fouché switched to environmentally friendly pest and disease control methods. We also believe prevention is better than cure. So with the help of our viticulturist, Marco Ventrella, we installed a state of the art non-invasive weather station on the farm, able to predict climatic events which could lead to outbreaks in pests or disease in our vineyards. Pieter has dedicated an experimental vineyard block to purely organic farming practices, yielding excellent results in restoring the natural balance.

We are extremely proud of our main conservation project, the Graham Beck Private Nature Reserve, which borders our Robertson estate and extends to the eastern slopes of the Rooiberg. The area comprises four sensitive vegetation types: Robertson Karoo, Breede shale renosterveld, Breede quartzite fynbos and Breede sand fynbos, an endangered vegetation type. The biomass cover of the entire reserve has risen by 34% since 2001, while our erosion problems have been reduced by up to 42%.

But it’s not only our precious indigenous flora that we are passionate about. A variety of indigenous animals have been successfully re-introduced to the area. Game such as spring buck, Eland and Rhebuck and birds like the stately blue crane have become a regular sight on Mossie’s game drives. Even the very rare riverine rabbit, a red data book endangered species, has been spotted in our reserve.

And if, many years hence, the generations to come are indeed fortunate to catch a glimpse of this shy creature – then we will have succeeded in our goal. Whether it be in celebration of the graceful courting dance of a pair of blue cranes, or the majestic vista of unspoiled renosterveld, we hope our next team of dedicated custodians will be toasting our precious heritage with a bottle of Graham Beck Brut!