Every day is Earth Day at Bosman Family Vineyards!
Our mantra ‘Dedicated to better’ spurs us on to continually look for ways of reducing our Carbon footprint and improving the health of our soils. We believe that healthy soils create healthy grapes which in turn create wines that, with minimal interference, can truly express their ‘terroir’ honestly and authentically. Simultaneously, healthy soils can sequestrate Carbon, so it’s a win-win!
A major initiative over the last few years has been to brew our own compost tea which is used instead of conventional fertilisers. When applied, the compost tea enriches the soil with organic material, i.e. Carbon. Microbes need Carbon to digest Nitrogen, and plants need Nitrogen to photosynthesize and produce healthy, robust grapes. In the years since we started applying the tea, the level of organic Carbon in the soil has grown by 220%.
“We’ve now reached a new stage,” explains Technical Manager, Dan Swart. “Tests show that our compost tea is being absorbed optimally by the soil, so we’re going to start applying more organic matter to the vineyards in the form of naturally supplemented, organic compost. This will provide more food for the microbes so that more organic matter can be produced and therefore the soil health will be further enhanced. It also creates a mulch layer which will enhance the soils’ water retention capacity.”
Another interesting (fun!) fact is that the vineyards where the sheep graze show a significantly higher level of organic matter. So it’s not a myth, pooping sheep wandering between the vineyards definitely do make a difference, especially when they simultaneously break up the soil with their hooves.
Our commitment to farming sustainably contributed to our Platter’s Editor’s Choice: Winery of the Year Award for 2024 which acknowledges our role as ‘ambassadors of excellence’.
“We are committed to producing wines of excellence both in their provenance and in their process by sustainably regenerating our community and our environment. Our success proves that it can be done.”
- MD, Petrus Bosman
