Community spirit

He mentioned the lack of a bus several times during our short conversation, always with a smile, as if I might have a bus hidden somewhere about my person or perhaps I could conjure one up out of thin air.

At 70, Sam is an elder of the community of 250 families who live and work at Lebanon, a mixed farm growing apples, pears, plums and grapes. The farm occupies around 100 hectares of land and it is owned and run by what in South Africa are called ‘previously disadvantaged people’.

I wandered around the farm which is set on rolling hillsides, with a backdrop of the beautiful Hottentots Holland Mountains. In one area there was a group of workers trimming the vines and tucking in shoots, while tractors trundled by, hauling water for the fruit trees.

At the main building there is a farm kitchen offering excellent food to travellers – big hearty breakfasts are their speciality and there is a handicrafts stall if you want to buy some gifts to take home.

All around this bright, bustling estate is the feeling of enterprise and ownership. And running it all, taking decisions about capital expenditure, costs, yields, profits and, sometimes, losses are the owners, a black community who are learning the basics of business as they work.

This farm is part of a Black Empowerment Project which owns one of the largest Fairtrade wine brands, Thandi. The name means ‘nurturing love’ and it is the combined love of people and land as well as a great sense of fairness which has allowed this project to survive the struggle to share out some of South Africa’s riches.

“In 1995, there was nothing here apart from trees,” said Vernon Henn, Thandi’s general manager. The election of Nelson Mandela provided the impetus to start the necessary changes in South Africa but it needed the help and support of the existing farming community to really get things moving.

Local farmer Paul Cluver got together with the forestry company to make a large tract of land available and he also donated some vineyards to help get the project started. But it wasn’t enough to donate. The real gift has been in Cluver’s long-term mentoring of the project, providing practical help to build the skills necessary to steer the workers and their community forward.

Now 22 hectares of vines have been planted here and, with grapes from two other farms which have joined the Thandi family, a massive 100,000 cases of wine are produced and sold worldwide.

“We cannot afford to build our own winery, so we rent space in a local co-operative and the wines are made to our specification,” said Vernon. But he knows it is not enough just to make wine, Thandi has to make the right kind of wine that people want to buy, so success in the International Wine Challenge and other prestigious competitions shows that Thandi is definitely heading in the right direction.

The Fairtrade principle works in a very simple way. As an organisation, Fairtrade makes sure that every product which carries their logo is actually run for the benefit of the community that produces it. As well as the normal profit margins which come from the production and sale of wine, every bottle of wine sold generates a small amount of money which goes directly into the community that produced it.

This money doesn’t go into the pockets of the workers, but towards long-term projects. As a buying premium, the added cost of a Fairtrade product to the customer is negligible, but because the money gets handed straight back to the workers it has a massive effect.

At the Lebanon farm it has funded a number of projects including healthcare, literacy classes and now a crèche for 40 children.

Now that they are 16 years into the Thandi project significant successes are evident. One youngster is heading off to study medicine, something which could not have been envisaged before, and others are studying viticulture and winemaking.

But what of the wines?

Thandi makes a wide range of wines and the quality been improving year on year as vineyards have matured.

Now there are fresh, lively flavours in the Sauvignon Blanc 2010 which comes from the cool-climate Lebanon farm (£6.25 The Wine Society, 01438 741177) and smooth red-berry fruit in the Shiraz Cabernet 2009 (£6.99 Halifax Wine Co www.halifaxwinecompany.com). There is also a crisp, red-cherry infused Shiraz Rosé 2010 which goes down well on a sunny spring afternoon (£6.99 Halifax).

Thandi is not the only Fairtrade wine producer in South Africa. There are several other worthwhile projects supporting their communities. The Co-op works closely with the Du Toitskloof co-operative winery in the Western Cape and has contributed significantly to raising the living conditions for the workers.

The Co-op range of wines includes a juicy, strawberry-scented Shiraz/Cinsault Sparkling Rosé, down from £8.49 to £6.49 until March 15. Du Toitskloof co-operative also supplies the South African Fairhills range which is sold by Waitrose and others. Try the lively flavours of Fairhills Fairtrade Colombard Sauvignon Blanc 2009 down from £6.49 to £5.19 until March 8.

Fairtrade Fortnight starts on Monday, and we should try to focus our spending power on Fairtrade projects around the world. Whether you buy Fairtrade wine, coffee, chocolate or bananas, each purchase is directly helping a ‘previously disadvantaged person’ somewhere, to live just that little bit better.