Quality wine now made in Whittlesea

FORGET overly priced wines with French names – Inkosi Wine is right in your backyard on the dusty plains of Whittlesea outside Komani (formerly known as Queenstown).

Inkosi Wine is made from locally grown grapes and retails at R200 a bottle.

Yesterday, the first-ever community-owned wine producing vineyard was officially launched in Whittlesea.

Housed at the Shiloh Irrigation Scheme, the vineyard is run by the Mayime Primary Agricultural Cooperative made up of about 400 beneficiaries.

Selborne Cecane, the chairman of the cooperative which also runs a successful dairy scheme on the site, said the idea of cultivating grapes to produce wine came up in 2012, after noticing they had vast tracts of unused land while the area was known to have suitable weather conditions for any type of fruit to thrive.

Chris Hani District Municipality later got involved after noticing the potential of the vineyard and has since invested around R8-million into the initiative since its inception according to acting mayor Mthethunzima Jack.

The department of rural development and agrarian reform also contributed a sum of R14-million mostly to buy machinery, fencing and refurbish some old crumbling buildings at the irrigation scheme.

The cooperative was able to partner with Farm Vision which helped with upskilling them on growing grapes as well as establishing partnerships with wine producers in the Western Cape.

Cecane said the members were able to harvest the first produce on the five hectares last year and since it did not have its own winery, the produce was taken to the Western Cape where it was bottled.

Jack said the municipality hoped to see the initiative grow to include a winery and cellar.

“The Chris Hani Development Agency which has the capacity and skills has developed a business plan towards sourcing more funding for the establishment of a cellar here,” said Jack. — sikhon@dispatch.