- Hartenberg viticulturist Wilhelm Joubert is in the process of defining the concept of regenerative farming in a South African context.
- Actively practicing and investigating the so-called five principles of regenerative farming, they have included the use of cattle through controlled grazing in the vineyards since 2017 to great effect.
- An alternative to organic farming methods, regenerative farming could be the answer to, not only maintaining soil health in the face of climate change, but adding to it.
- For more wine articles, go to the Wine home page.
"Regenerative farming starts here." - Carl Schultz
Carl Schultz has been the winemaker, and Production Director of Hartenberg estate in Bottelary, Stellenbosch, for 30 years.
Last week, I had the pleasure of visiting this historic farm, originally the stronghold of the Finlayson clan, who went on to produce some of South Africa's finest pioneering winemakers. People like Eleanor Finlayson of Hartenberg; Peter Finlayson of Hamilton Russell and Bouchard Finlayson; Walter Finlayson of Glen Carlo; David Finlayson of Edgbaston, now David Finlayson Wines; Peter-Allan Finlayson of Gabri lskloof and Crystallum; and Carolyn Martin ne Finlayson of the fourth best-rated vineyard in the world, Creation (together with her husband, Jean-Claude Martin).
(Not listed in level of importance or relevance, but just because Peter Finlayson once sang to me during an interview - he's an avid tenor - and I just followed the bloodline from there.)
Similarly, Carl Schultz comes from an equally important wine clan, the oldest of five boys, three of whom also make wine. His brothers Rudi Schultz of Schultz family wines, Gunther Schultz of Baleia Wines, and Werner Schultz, previously viticulturist at Thelema, now working in the USA. Originally from Montagu, Carl has been an industry stalwart as a Cape Winemakers Guild member - formerly chairperson, and today board member - a quietly powerful figure in the wine industry.
Our Only Challenge
Carl says he attended a wine congress in Bordeaux 30 years ago where a man from Cornell University made the sage observation: "The Western seaboard of South Africa and the Southern Hemisphere will only become warmer and drier. Your challenge will be in your future to produce like you did in the past in a warmer climate with less water. Logic will tell you that unless you innovate, you're in trouble."
Something Carl says stuck with him.
When I ask him what he thinks the main challenges for SA wine are, he doesn't mention taxi violence or political instability: "Climate change is the slow poison of our time. It is our only challenge," he says.
And in South Africa, that means water.
The only way to make our soils are more drought resistant is to put more carbon back into it, something you see a lot of viticulturists focussing on, addressing the issue by planting a variety of cover crops and mulching (covering the ground with straw or sawdust to retain moisture). Carbon-elevated soils are more drought resistant and retain water better, meaning you'll need less of it in a warmer climate.
Though Carl says, if you measure the carbon content of soils with cover crops and mulching, it remains minuscule, compared to what they have found bringing animals into the mix with controlled grazing in the vineyards - you can more than double the carbon content in the soil. Enter Wilhelm Joubert.
The father of regenerative viticulture
Wilhelm has been the viticulturist at Hartenberg since 2006.
Hailing from Ceres and a farming background, he attended Elsenburg and worked at Boschendal before he was headhunted by Carl, who had been doing both the viticulture and winemaking at Hartenberg up until then.
Whenever I ask winemakers about their viticultural practices, they tend to either be vehemently organic or will answer that they're working regeneratively or sustainably - which to me has come to be catch-all phrases meaning "whatever works".
Not meant in a derogatory way, everyone seems to be morally and passionately obligated to work sustainably, with initiatives such as the Old Vine Project's missive "planting to grow old", the value of old vines, and precision viticulture having translated into world-class wines, and thus, the initiative (if taken), is also richly rewarded.
While still in an experimental phase, however, Hartenberg and Wilhelm, to whom I will henceforth refer as the father of South African regenerative viticulture (though he will hate me saying it), are making great strides toward scientifically defining the term.
Together with the University of Stellenbosch, which has now undertaken a two-year project to help document and research Wilhelm's approach, they are working toward formalising the principles of regenerative viticulture as pertaining to a South African landscape.
The creatures
On arrival, Wilhelm immediately got me into a bakkie one beautiful morning last week, right before the storm. Eager to show me their beautiful cattle, Dexters, Nguni, and the famed Ankole (45 animals in total, excluding the calves), famously bred by Cyril Ramaphosa, one of the most expensive cattle breeds. From up close, you can see why.
These pedigreed creatures stand regal with their almost impossibly large horns incongruously perched on their foreheads, though Wilhelm assures me these horns are hollow and not heavy, their coats are shiny, and they just look expensive.
Instead of standing in the middle of an empty field, however, the cattle are quartered right in and among the vines, with make-shift enclosures placed at the bottom of the rows, effectively hemming them in and giving them only enough room to turn around in, to avoid them sleeping outside the vineyard and losing out on the benefit of their bodily functions.
The number of cattle to the number of rows - one of the experimental elements of Wilhelm's study - is still a work in progress, though they started integrating animals into their viticulture in 2017, and I think Wilhelm has a pretty good idea of what works and what doesn't.
Though, he is quick to say that you should do only what works for you, what you have time and money for - because, in the end, the first priority of business is to remain in business.
The effect of the animals in the vineyards has the potential to not only double the carbon in the soil (to be confirmed this month), but also increase the animal and plant life through the manure and saliva they physically work into it. One of the advantages has been that, instead of having to replant their cover crops every year, natural cover crops are starting to sprout up, removing the need to purchase new cover crops every year and proving that while this method is naturally and sustainably sound, it may also offer some economic windfall, though Wilhelm says any financial gains at this point is merely a plus, while they continue to refine the process.
The principles
What are the principles of regenerative farming? Wilhelm says there are five, based on things he has picked up via a variety of sources and scientists like Allan Savory, a Zimbabwean farmer now living in the US, who advocates moving livestock to mimic nature as a means to reverse desertification. Gabe Brown, is a pioneer of the soil health movement, and Bennie Diedericks, a local soil scientist with whom he has worked since his Boschendal days.
The principles are minimal cultivation, no bare soil, living roots, diverse plant life, and, lastly, seemingly the trump card, the integration of animals. What animals, Wilhelm says, is up to you. He loves his cattle, being both midwife, caretaker, psychologist, policeman (they tend to wander), and friend to his happy troop.
He says sheep and chickens could work as well, though due to their size, they will be challenging to keep in the vines or from being stolen or picked off by larger predators. Animals also require people and thus involve more people in the process.
In effect, Hartenberg is so much more than a wine farm. It is a whole ecosystem in its own right, and Wilhelm says part of the process will be to monitor the effect of all these labours on the resulting wine - though knowing Carl and the wines of Hartenberg, I have no doubts.
The wine
Having met the Dexters, Nguni, and Ankole up close and personal, Wilhelm and I climbed over the little electric fence to get a closer look at their newest arrival.
A beautiful little brown Nguni-Dexter calf, and suddenly imagining the docile cows as angry buffalo, I was happy to get back on the other side of the fence. Afterward, I got to sit down with Carl and Heleen. Making wine on a farm for 30 years is a long time, and in that time, Carl has established Hartenberg wines as benchmark South African wines. Jean Vincent Ridon says that Hartenberg's Riesling is one of the most identifiable wines in a line-up and a testament to Carl's love of the variety.
This is something he picked up from Johan Malan of Simonsig, where he worked as assistant winemaker for three years and whom he credits as the most significant mentors of his career. Johan's father was the first to bring Riesling into South Africa in 1971.
Carl likes noble varieties, grapes with a track record, he says, so Riesling, Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. Something the 11 different soil types on Hartenberg, and its some 170ha (they currently have 90ha planted to vine, the balance being indigenous wetland), allows him to explore.
Carl predicts that in the future, as Pinot Noir did in the past, Merlot and Sauvignon Blanc will migrate to the coast and away from Stellenbosch. While Malbec (of which they planted and utilise in their Bordeaux-style blend, The Mackenzie) will eventually come to substitute Merlot's place in Stellenbosch. Something we're already seeing with the emergence of more and more single varietal Malbec - you should try the Winshaws' new Malbec for reference.
The pinnacle
While most winemakers stress the importance of focusing their production, Carl says the farm decides the cultivar. Thus, their three wine ranges showcase the diverse soils and culminate in the Gravel Hill Syrah - the first single-site concept wines in South Africa, when it was first made in 1995.
The essence of this wine is violets and garrique (a combination of woodsmoke and Karoo shrub), which following a CWG tasting, Kevin Arnold once said reminded him of Hermitage. The Hermitage then of Bottelary - though Carl says they have both Devon Valley Clay-Loam soils than Bottelary-specific soils. For 14 years, Carl only ever made this wine for the Cape Winemakers Auction, as the pinnacle of what Hartenberg can produce, and in 2005 brought it back to the farm as its flagship wine.
On the back of the bottle, he writes: "Gravel Hill is without a doubt the finest wine I have had the privilege of crafting and is the vinous gem in the Hartenberg crown. It is, therefore, the sole Hartenberg bearer of my signature and a symbol of my life's work now stretching back three decades."
Old school-positive
During our conversation, we hit on the concept of öld school", a term often applied with negative connotations. Wine critics refer to big wines (high alcohol, high tannin) as an old-school South African style, though, this year, the Decanter World Wine Awards awarded a perceived "old school" Le Riche Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon Best in Show. Proving that the international wine world is also coming around to OUR style of wine, not something to be apologetic about, but to champion.
Carl touches on the importance of ageability in fine wine and the fact that well - structured wines of gravitas, offer the perfect building blocks for ageing.
While he does advocate a lighter touch through precision viticulture and winemaking, the overarching goal at Hartenberg remains quality, and if that quality is old school, be - in bringing animals back to farming, planting what belongs, and allowing it to reflect the terroir honestly - then I'd say its time for some old school positivity.
Discover more of Hartenberg Estate's Regenerative Mission and its beautiful range of wines here. (The Eleanor Chardonnay is not to be missed!)
