Sustainability

Johnathan Grieve, youngest son of Avondale founders John and Ginny Grieve, sees himself as caretaker of a unique piece of land south of Paarl. To be able to preserve Avondale for future generations, he has created a sustainable way of farming naturally. He calls this Bio-LOGIC. Over 300 years ago, the original “Geelblomfontein (Valley of the Yellow Flowers) farm was established here on the slopes of the Klein Drakenstein Mountains outside Paarl. Early records indicate that the farm was one of the first in the Paarl Valley to be allocated specifically for the production of wine grapes.    

The Grieve family, led by John and Ginny Grieve – owners of Vital Health Foods, bought the farm in 1996 and renamed it Avondale - for their former manor house in Durbanville. First vintage wines was made in 1999. Since then the family’s Avondale Trust steered the farm and business into the modern era with new plantings, a new state-of –the-art, gravity-flow cellar and a desire to make the best wine in the Cape. This new cellar was inaugurated prior to the 2003 harvest.

The Grieves bought the farm in Southern Paarl in 1997 and made the first wines under the Avondale label in 1999.

Today Johnathan manages the business and viticulture.

As proprietor of Avondale, Johnathan Grieve is responsible for all production, sales and marketing functions of the estate. Through his initiatives, Avondale has established the reputation of being one of the leading organic wine producers in South Africa through their Bio-LOGIC approach to viticulture and winemaking.

Having studied fine arts in Cape Town, Johnathan had no preconceived ideas about agriculture, and this allowed a fresh approach, viewing the estate and the production of wine as a natural and symbiotic entity.

With this in mind Avondale has been uncompromising in developing a natural way of farming, combining organic, bio-dynamic and modern science into a natural, sustainable approach.

The most important thing is to produce super-premium wines that are true to terroir and full of character, and Avondale believes that this can only be done by following a natural course of action.

• Build our soils and foster natural life in them
• Increase the organic matter of our soils
• Use less external inputs towards total sustainability
• Increase the natural predators and defense mechanisms
• Produce unique and terroir driven wines
• Produce top quality elegant wines

Avondale comprises 160 hectare of which 100 hectares are planted with a selection of mainly Rhône and Bordeaux grape varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Petit Verdot, Cabernet Franc, Semillon, Chenin Blanc; and Shiraz, Mourvedre, Grenache, Viognier, Rousanne, and Chardonnay. The vineyards are planted in one hectare size blocks to ensure separate vinification and ageing.

All 100 hectares are certified organic by the Dutch-based Control Union, one of Europe's leading certification authorities with accreditation to the German Bio Nach EG-Öko Verordnung, Britain’s Soil Association, and the USDA certification in the United States of America.

Avondale nestles on the slopes of the Klein Drakenstein Mountains , a range which is a source for the surrounding Boland towns and the Berg River.

It also supplies Avondale with pure natural mineral water all year round. The same water feeds our vines. A natural stone weir on the slopes of the mountain dams the water before it reaches the farm, where the water is stored in three large constructed dams.

Before the colonizing of the Cape of Good Hope, the indigenous Kuena people referred to Table Mountain as ‘Place of Sweet Waters’ or in their language, “Camissa ’ . Since our water is as sweet as the age old Table Mountain water, we named our premium shiraz for it.

Avondale has up to 11 different soil types. These are active, alive, and vibrant with millions of bacteria, fungi and earthworms. The soil types, ranging from Aliwal to Kroonstad soils with up to 75% stone content, and they originated from decomposed sandstone and granite.

A variety of slopes are found at Avondale to create different meso-climates. The mostly north-westerly slopes of the farm are varied with north easterly and south westerly slopes.

The ultra-modern cellar, with a capacity of 500 ton, was inaugurated in 2003. It was erected in a dry river bed and built three stories deep. Gravity flow is used to ensure that all the grapes are treated with minimal mechanical interference during harvest.

Avondale is affiliated to the green farming organization Linking Environment and Farming (LEAF). As we subscribe to the practice of sustainable farming, we associate with the international plight to combine food production with nature.

As a member of the Waitrose Foundation social welfare scheme , Avondale is committed to improving the lives of farm workers and their families.

In 2004 Avondale won the Paarl Shiraz Challenge and was awarded R20 000 by Saturn Stainless Steel tank manufacturers. We kept the prize money and used it as seed money in conjunction with the Waitrose Foundation to set up a crèche and day care centre for the children of Avondale’s farm workers.

One of the biggest potential pollution points on a wine farm is that of the waste water that the cellar generates from all the cleaning activities. The main reason for this is because of potential contaminants from the grape juice itself as well as the cleaning materials. It is also an area where there is potentially a chance to waste huge amounts of water.

So at Avondale we identified the possible problem and then set about controlling it. We started with the control of the water usage in the cellar by installing all taps with automatic shut off valves so when one is not using the water there is no wastage.

We then progressed to source organic acceptable cleaning materials that are readily biodegradable and results in total breakdown without harmful bi-products. We also moved towards the use of UV lights for sterilization of tanks and barrels thus reducing the need for sterilizing products and the UV light has no residual effect.

So we sorted out the flow of water, the cleaning materials but we still obviously have the waste water that a cellar generates even if it is substantially reduced.

So we went out and researched various options with the view to get a system in place that mimics nature in its design and by doing this reducing the maintenance and running costs of the system. We did not want a system that has huge running expenses such as chemical additives aeration and thus electricity usage.

The system that we have built was modeled on a waste water system that we saw working at an abattoir in the Northern Cape. It fits what we were looking for perfectly!

The plant consists of three dams which are interlinked with spiraling channels which in effect recreates a river system. The channels are planted with cleansing reeds that extract all the excessive nutrients in the water and converts them into green material (Which we can use in producing compost).

The cellar effluent is pumped to the first dam, and here it is inoculated with Effective Microorganisms (EM) which has a multi-strain make up of microorganisms which can live in both anaerobic and aerobic conditions. The first dam is most definitely anaerobic and this is where the microbes start their work breaking down and digesting the nutrients in the water. From here the water is flows slowly through the first “river” system where the reads extract the nutrients and convert this to vegetation. This is nature working for us at her optimum, a natural self sustaining filter system.

In the second dam, bird and insect life return to the water already. It is incredible to see how quickly the wild life returns when the system is healthy and we have a lot of nesting birds on the second and third dams. They are quite a bird watching paradise.

Once again the water flows through the next “river” reeds into the third dam, where the water is fully purified and hosting wild life. From here the water is stored and used to irrigate lawns and trees on the estate.

In future we are looking to close this circle of purification even further by building shallow pans where we will use the water from the third or possible second dam and grow blue/green algae for a perfect natural fertilizer which we will use on the vineyards and orchards.