The Winery of Good Hope
The Winery of Good Hope is more than just a winery. It’s an approach. An alternative way of thinking, being and doing. Yes, you will find it in the prestigious wine-making region of Stellenbosch, in South Africa’s Cape of Good Hope. But they aren’t like other wine producers. Why? Because they’re not into all the flashy stuff that’s often associated with the wine industry. They want to make quality wine with a conscience. At their cellar on the slopes of the Helderberg Mountain, they make great wines using traditional, natural viticultural and winemaking methods. Their also fully accredited for environmental, ethical, and social-upliftment practices. That’s why they called themselves The Winery of Good Hope.
It’s easy to say you’re environmentally friendly or socially responsible. But unless you open yourself up to the critical scrutiny of an independent accreditation agency or auditor, how can anyone be sure that you’re walking the ethical winery walk?
To prove that they are, The Winery of Good Hope set themselves targets in four critical non-business areas: the environment, ethics, social upliftment and B-BEEE (which stands for Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment). Some of these topics are becoming trendy and are being used in a tokenistic fashion to sell wine. The Winery off Good Hope sticks to these principles when the next vogue appears and the less sincere move on to greener pastures. That’s why owners and winemakers Ben Radford and Alex Dale belong to the group of founding members of the Premium Independent Wineries Of South Africa (PIWOSA), which possesses the gold-standard ethics charter in today’s industry.
