Savisa to build new winery in Sonop

Published: 23 July, 2008

More 'Winds of Change'

SAVISA, the Swiss multinational ngociant company, intends to build a winery on its Sonop wine farm site, near Paarl. The winery will have a capacity of 1,500 tonnes. The plan is the latest development of the Winds of Change project, set up in 1997 to encourage local workers to own land and housing which they live and work in. Managing director Bernard Fontannaz said that there had been immense difficulties in setting up the project, and that they were still not free of them. "There has been lots of frustration, and change is difficult, but progress has been made." Houses have been repainted and renovated and, in the vineyards, a new drip-irrigation system is coming on-stream. Currently, 15% of wine, on average, is taken from the Sonop wine farm for SAVISA's Winds of Change project. The rest comes from SAVISA's other South African contracts. Fontannaz said that the Western Cape authorities had been helpful over the last year of the project, but that the national agricultural department currently had not. SAVISA is also looking at a nearby farm to repeat its Winds of Change project in two years' time.

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