Article and photos : Marina Vermeulen
S
outh Africa is a seriously
dry country with an average rainfall of roughly
450mm a year (almost half
the world average of 850mm). As
climate change continues, it is set
to get even dryer.
By 2017, we aim to reduce our municipal water usage by 50% from
our 2009 levels, through guest and
employee awareness and the continuous monitoring and implementation of water-saving measures in
every facet of our business.
Wine farms such as Spier are dependent on sufficient and regular
water supply, both in terms of supplementary irrigation of vineyards,
and in the process of making wine.
During the winemaking process in
the cellar, Spier measures how
much water it uses to create 1L of
wine. From July 2013 to May 2014
we used an average of 2.14L of water to make 1L of wine. From July
2014 to May 2015 this consumption reduced to 1.96L of water used
to make 1L of wine. According to
the Integrated Production of Wines
(IPW) environmental sustainability
scheme, smaller South African win-
As water scarcity increases, we take
our commitment to conserving water seriously and believe in realising
this commitment in an innovative
and holistic way.
On the land and in our winery
eries like Spier typically use an average of 5.6 litres of water (cellar only
– not taking into account irrigation,
transport) for 1 litre of wine.
Effective cleaning programmes,
trained staff, water-saving devices,
use of high-pressure machines and
barrel steamers are all initiatives
that reduce the use of water in our
cellar.
98% of the vineyards on Spier farm
are watered with drip irrigation.
DFM irrigation probes are calibrated
and provide data on how much water each vineyard and pasture
needs, thereby allowing us to have
an optimised irrigation strategy that
ensures that only the necessary
amount of water is irrigated.