FAMILY-OWNED WINE FARMS IN SOUTH AFRICA: A VALUABLE LEGACY
There are many historic wine farms in the Western Cape dating back to the late 17th century when the Dutch and French settlers first arrived. However, few have remained in one family for more than a few generations. Economic hardship, family dynamics and shifting trends invariably lead to farms being sold out of families and into others.
When Jan van Riebeek arrived at the Cape on 6 April 1652, he immediately set about planting fruit and vegetables to supply the ships travelling from Europe to the East and back to trade in spices. The first grape vines were planted in 1655, and on 2 February 1659, the first wine was made from Cape grapes. This led to a vineyard being planted on Roschheuvel, now Bishopscourt in Wynberg (hence the name!) and therefore it is the oldest wine farm in Cape Town, in fact the oldest wine farm in South Africa.
In 1679, Simon van der Stel became the new governor. He was very knowledgeable about viticulture and winemaking, and so wine production started to improve at the Cape, particularly on his own wine farm, Groot Constantia.
The burgeoning wine industry got another shot in the arm when the French Huguenots started arriving from France from 1685. Fleeing religious persecution, these settlers did not have much money, but they did have an extensive knowledge of wine and so gradually wine production increased as the Huguenots were granted land and established farms right across the current day Cape Winelands, starting in Franschhoek but then further afield as they were settled in between the Dutch so as to be assimilated into the local population. This was the beginning of the South African wine industry.
In 1699 Huguenots were granted land in the Wamakersvallei (wagon makers valley) along the Kromme River on the slopes of the Groenberg and the Limietberg Mountains, so called because this range formed the limit of the colony. Philippe Drouin was granted the farm he named De Groene Fontein in February of that year, referring to the natural spring (fountain) located on this piece of land. Over a century later, this farm would form the start of a family legacy that as stretched up to the present.
BOSMAN FAMILY HISTORY
While the first member of the Bosman family arrived at the Cape of Good Hope in 1707, the Bosmans have been farming in the Bovlei of Wellington since 1810, making it one of the oldest family-owned wine farms in South Africa.
Their heritage starts through the maternal line as De Groene Fontein was purchased then by Jacobus François Malan, known as Rooi Kooitjie because he had red hair. His one son Jacobus Johannes Malan inherited a portion of the farm which he named Lelienfontein. He passed it onto his son, also Jacobus Johannes but called Lang Kooitjie because he was 2m tall and needed an extra-long bed (‘kooi’ in vernacular Afrikaans), and it was his daughter Sophia Elizabeth who married Petrus Wilhelmus Jacobus Bosman after he purchased the next-door farm, Groenfontein. PWJ Bosman later sold his farm and bought Lelienfontein, keeping it in the (now) Bosman family.
The line of Bosmans descends down the century in typical Afrikaans tradition alternating Petrus – Jan – Petrus – Jan – Petrus and now there are 3 grandsons named Jan waiting in the wings.
Petrus and Sophia’s son, Jan Christoffel Bosman, was born in 1891. He fared very well at school but could not study further as his father was ill and so, after matriculating, he returned to the farm to take over the reins. He played a big role in the community, and in fact the country, playing a key role in JC Smuts’s South Africa Party and serving as Director of SA Dried Fruit and Chairman of the Dried Fruit Board.
Jan passed the farm onto his son Petrus in 1943, and it was he who founded the vine grafting industry, starting his own vine grafting nursery on the farm in 1947 and becoming the founding Chairman of the Wellington Nursery Association.
When phylloxera (a plant louse) decimated the world’s vineyards in the late 19th century, the only remedy was to graft grape vine cuttings onto phylloxera resistant rootstock and so the vine nursery industry was formed. Initially farmers grafted their own vines, but it soon became evident that proper norms and standards needed to be introduced and this is where Oupa Petrus (as he is fondly called these days) played a pivotal role in the establishment thereof. He closed the farm cellar and co-founded the Wellington Co-operative to which he delivered the grapes.
Petrus’s son Jannie joined his father on the farm in 1979 and continued to expand the vine nursery, acquiring more land surrounding the original farm.
Jannie’s four children were all keen to get involved in the family business. The oldest, Petrus, wanted to re-open the cellar and produce wine under the Bosman label. So, the original cellar was renovated and expanded, and the first vintage of Bosman Family Vineyards wines were produced there in 2007 with winemaker Corlea Fourie in charge and the grapes all sourced from the best of the Bosman vineyards.
Nowadays Petrus heads up the business while his brother Pieter-Daniel manages the vineyards, and his other brother Jannie heads up the nursery and plant improvement facility. Their sister Antonia takes care of the accommodation on the various farms and lives with her family on the Bosman farm in the Karoo.
So, with generation 9 waiting in the wings, it’s useful to reflect on just how one family can hold onto a farm for so many generations. The Bosmans put it down to three key pillars on which they build their business: heritage, sustainability and innovation.
While heritage reflects the 200+ year history, this would not be possible without working sustainably. And sustainability relies on constant innovation combined with a respect for heritage. With a continual passing down of information, skill and tradition, farm management treads a well-defined path pioneered by the generations that have gone before, not just of the Bosman family, but also the working community.
There is also pressure to farm in a way that secures the future of the generations to come. This requires the constant reliance on the interchange between heritage, sustainability and innovation to keep the proverbial show on the road.
A key innovative factor towards long-term sustainability in the current generation was the development of an inclusive business model. In 2008 the farm worker community received a 26% share in the entire business and land. This community can also trace its lineage almost as far back as the Bosmans, and these days they have a stake in the farm’s sustainability for their progeny as well, ensuring the overall success of this business.
There are other South African wine farms that have been passed down through one family over generations. Meerlust is probably the most notable, having been in the family since 1756.
Linked to Meerlust, Philippus Albertus Myburgh left that wine farm and married into the Wessel family of Joostenberg. Their heritage is also eight generations through the maternal line.
Both Diemersdal in Durbanville and Merwida near Rawsonville have been in the Louw and Van der Merwe families respectively for seven generations.
WHAT IS THE BENEFIT OF A MULTI-GENERATION, FAMILY-OWNED WINE FARM?
As previously stated, the mere fact that a farm has remained in one family for so many generations speaks volumes for the strong, ethical principles of that family who through hard work, reliance on each other, sound business principles and innovative methods have managed to not only keep a farm in the family, but develop it in a way that creates opportunities for succession. Added to that, if one looks at the communities on these farms, many of the working families have also lived on the farm for generations, passing on their own skills to the following generation and therefore creating a momentum for progress and success. Cheers to family!
