| Posted: 23.02.2012 | ||||||||
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South Africa, Elgin, November 2009; “The leading proponent of viticultural and winemaking practices that are both environmentally sustainable and focused on excellence.” In one sentence this statement perfectly sums up Oak Valley Estate in Elgin and their approach to winemaking, and is likely the reason why they have just won the Best Environmental Practices Award at the 2009 Nedbank Green Wine Awards.
A condition of entry for this competition is conformance to guidelines set out by the Integrated Production of Wine (IPW), the voluntary environmental sustainability scheme established in 1998.
“We view this award as a great honour and are obviously very pleased indeed to receive it,” says Anthony Rawbone-Viljoen, Managing Director of Oak Valley. “The environment and excellence are subjects we are very serious about at Oak Valley and it’s very pleasing to see our efforts in this regard recognised by Nedbank and WINE magazine.”
The inaugural Nedbank Green Wine Awards were announced at the Mount Nelson Hotel in Cape Town on Wednesday, 11 November 2009. The Nedbank Green Wine Awards have come about due to the increased popularity and consumer interest in this category. Nedbank was the natural partner for the awards due to their ongoing involvement with conservation projects. Their support for the Biodiversity & Wine Initiative through the Green Trust has been in effect since the organization’s inception in 2004.
The Green Wine Awards are two pronged: Best Wine from Organically Grown Grapes and Best Environmental Practices.
The judges were Inge Kotzé, project coordinator of the Biodiversity & Wine Initiative, Tom McLaughlin, good business journey specialist at Woolworths, and Lourens van Schoor, a registered professional soil and environmental scientist and director of environmental auditing firm Enviroscientific.
Apart from the coveted award, Oak Valley receives an IPW audit worth R11 000 provided by Enviroscientific for both farm and cellar towards EnviroWines certification.
Each wine producer was asked to provide a comprehensive motivation as to why it should be considered for this coveted award. Oak Valley has a long history of eco-management. It commissioned a comprehensive Environmental Management Plan (EMP) in December 2000 which was drafted and compiled by Janette Selley, a qualified environmentalist. The recommendations documented in this plan have been implemented, or are in the process of being implemented, and the plan is reviewed on an annual basis. The original EMP was revised and redrafted in May 2008.
Oak Valley was one of the first three farms outside of the European Union to achieve Tesco Nature’s Choice accreditation which was subsequently upgraded to Gold status. It is also Globalgap (in the Gold class), Integrated Production of Wine (IPW), WIETA (Wine Industry Ethical Trade Audit) and Biodiversity and Wine Initiative accredited.
Oak Valley was the 9th farm to achieve Champion status under the BWI scheme run under the auspices of the SA Wine Industry, and the first in the Overberg.
It has preferred supplier status to Waitrose in the U.K., was a finalist in the Woolworths Eco Efficiency Awards Programme and winner of the 2007 Farm Health Awards programme that recognises social responsibility on wine farms.
Today Oak Valley Estates is still a family-owned business located some 70km East of Cape Town. Oak Valley was founded in 1898 by Sir Antonie Viljoen, a medical doctor and senator in the Cape Parliament, who was knighted for his efforts in reconciling the deep differences that existed between Boer and Brit in the aftermath of the Anglo Boer War.
Oak Valley is 1,786 hectares in extent, and current crops grown include deciduous fruit (341ha), wine grapes (50ha), natural pasture reared beef cattle (580ha) and fresh cut flowers (16ha).
Oak Valley is a founder member of the Groenlandberg Conservancy and also a founder member of the Green Mountain Eco Route which was formed to promote eco-tourism in the region. It has an annual budget directed towards eradicating alien plants on the mountain slopes above the property, and this in an ongoing investment which will continue into the future.
“We are committed to producing our range of products in an environmentally sustainable way and will continue to employ these techniques wherever possible into the future,” Rawbone-Viljoen added.
