Bosman Family Vineyards believe in the future of South Africa and its wine industry. In this we are committed to producing wines of excellence both in their provenance and in their process by sustainably growing our community and our environment.

In 2009, 260 permanently employed workers received a 26% stake in the business, a significant role player in the vine and wine growing industry of the Western Cape. To date it is the largest land reform transaction in the history of the South African wine industry.

The mutual agreement between the Bosman family and the members of the Adama Trust is to continuously strive to create and implement projects that will build a sustainable future for not only the community, but also for the environment which they all call home.

Education

A crèche and aftercare centre gives every child a good start in life.

The Bovlei Nursery School, housed in the Bovlei Community Centre, caters for children from the age of 7 months to 6 years when they are ready to start Grade R at the local government school nearby. The 70 children are divided up into classes by age group and are taught by 11 trained teachers and teaching assistants, facilitated and supported by the Pebbles Project who provide continuous training and assessment. The children also receive healthy, well-balanced meals, as well as regular health checks from the clinic.

After school every weekday, 67 children from Grade 1-7 go directly to the Bovlei Community Centre to participate in the Pebbles After School Club. Run by 5 trained teachers, the programme includes meals, homework supervision and individual remedial assistance.

Career counselling and extra lessons optimise our children’s chances at success

Every year the grades 9 and 11 learners go through comprehensive psychometric testing. Individual feedback sessions are arranged for each learner and their parents to assist them with subject choices for the following year, as well as enabling them to make better decisions about their future careers and which tertiary qualification they can apply for.

This year Grade 11 learners attended a workshop on motivation and study methods, while the group of 6 matriculants are also receiving individual assistance with career choices and help with their applications for bursaries and courses at various tertiary institutions.

Housing and Social Development

111 Houses on the farm and 1o apartments in the nearby village are maintained regularly.

At Bosman Family Vineyards ensuring families have sufficient and secure space in which each family can thrive, is an imperative.

Maintenance of all the houses are taken care of by the Housing Committee while the Human Resources Department channels resources towards programmes including adult literacy classes and a values-based life skills programme that are open to anyone on the farm. Several employees have benefitted from bursaries that have paid for a wide range of courses from

business management, accounting, engineering, healthcare, HIV counselling

and logistics.

The Men’s; Women’s and Pensioners’ Club each focus on the needs of their members, where the members themselves take care of each other and hold one another accountable. There are ongoing needlework classes on offer; various sports teams compete in a league with other farm teams; and there are community care courses such as HIV counselling. Social outings to

the city and the beach are arranged as well by these clubs.

Conservation

Eradication of alien plants allow rare indigenous plants to thrive.

Although our vineyards began their organic transition in 2016, we have been clearing alien plants and trees in the mountainous areas of the farm for much longer. Controlled fires have also helped eradicate aliens and resulted in the new growth of indigenous species.

A professional study was undertaken to scope the continuation of sustained rehabilitation of the farm’s uncultivated land to eradicate alien vegetation and allow indigenous plants. Already two rare species, never before recorded in the area, have been sighted on the farm. Both the leucospermum grandiflorum (Greyleaf Fountain Pincushion) and the leucodendrom daphnoides (Du Toitskloof Conebush) are on the country’s red list of species threatened with extinction.

We are working closely with Cape Nature to rehabilitate the open land surrounding our vineyards by removing larger alien trees like eucalyptus, black wattle and pine trees to let smaller indigenous ‘’fynbos’’ species flourish.

Fynbos uses significantly less water than big, alien trees in our water scarce region, which means that soon there will be more mountain water available to the vineyards. Areas where soil erosion occurred are being rehabilitated. As the aliens are eradicated, goats have been introduced to graze in the area and spread the seeds of indigenous plants through their waste.

Solar Power

The Lelienfontein Cellar and the vine processing and dispatch facilities have 5 PV solar systems of 16.5KvA per hour installed on the roofs.

Water

The Kromme River runs through the valley, finding its source in the surrounding mountain slopes. A pipeline has been constructed, beginning at the highest weir on the farm, and it runs

3.5km through the farm, allowing for the vineyards and vine nursery fields to be irrigated.

Being gravity-fed eliminates the need for electricity and allows the farm to be self-sufficient in terms of water supply.

Transport

3 Busses connect both adults and children to opportunities for advancement.

One of the first initiatives for the community back in 2008 was to acquire 2 busses to transport both children and adults to school, the clinic and hospitals, social events and adult classes. To this end, 2 bus drivers are employed to spend their days ferrying workers and their children around the farm and into the village and city.

Earlier this year a larger bus was acquired to avoid having to hire busses every time the choir went out to perform or the school children went on an outing. Already the children have been to visit an animal sanctuary nearby.