Impact

The Spier Nursery was established to propagate and grow indigenous trees and plants that are specific to the region to re-introduce these onto the farm. Since 2012, the Nursery has planted over 102 957 different trees, shrubs and fynbos on the farm.

Every seed planted is a step towards restoring a critical balance of diversity and enhancing our farm’s natural beauty with indigenous plants and bulbs that belong here.

Our team of 30 permanent employees are dedicated to the propagation and re-planting of indigenous and endemic plant species, striving to source endangered plants as well as plants that are no longer found in the area.

In one year (June 2022-23), we planted 28 961 trees, shrubs, bulbs and groundcover, carefully allocated across various restoration projects — 11 076 for landscaping, enhancing the aesthetic and natural beauty of the farm; 868 for fynbos restoration, preserving the unique Cape floral kingdom; 5917 aimed at ecosystem restoration, revitalising the farm’s ecological health; and 7582 for river and wetland restoration, safeguarding the waterways that meander through Spier.

This granular level of detail in our planting efforts, from the selection of plant types like the Watsonia borbonica for treating the dam wall to the Aristea ensifolia for landscaping, demonstrates our commitment to a balanced and thriving ecosystem. Spier hopes that we will have developed biodiversity unique in this area that would be both valuable and educational for the future.

Guided by the principles of enriching the soil and fostering plant resilience, we cultivate fruits, herbs, and vegetables without using pesticides or artificial fertilisers.

Spier’s food gardens were first planted in September 2013 and significantly expanded in 2020 under Megan McCarthy’s guidance. Our approach is simple: We steer clear of pesticides or artificial fertilisers, focussing instead on keeping our soil rich and healthy. This ensures our fruit, herbs, and vegetables are naturally resilient, growing in accordance with the best organic practices.

By relying on worm compost and weekly foliar sprays, we naturally boost nutrients in our soil. Techniques like companion planting, cover cropping and crop rotation are central to our gardening, enhancing the flavour of our produce while keeping pests at bay and maintaining soil health. The presence of sheep in our orchards, ducks, and chickens in the garden helps us keep the soil alive and fertile without turning it over.

The fruits of our labour serve a dual purpose: they’re a key ingredient in the dishes served at our restaurants and also find their way to the shelves of the Spier Cowshed, as well as a select few local retailers and restaurants.

More than just a garden, this space is a hub for learning and community engagement. Through activities like self-harvests, tours, and workshops, we emphasise the value of nutrition, the importance of soil health, and the joy of sharing good food.

Our commitment extends beyond our farm. We collaborate with local initiatives like the Sustainability Institute and Woolworths through theLiving Soils Community Learning Farm program and are proud to be affiliated with the Western Cape Farmers Participatory Guarantee System.

Join us for Self-Harvesting

Harvest your own produce from the food garden Tuesday – Saturday mornings between 09.00 to 11.00. From R170, advanced booking is essential. Click here to secure your spot. Comfortable shoes and a hat are recommended.

Amidst our quest for zero waste, we began to see waste not just as refuse, but as a means to support livelihoods for individuals in our local neighbourhoods who had been excluded from the formal economy. This revelation sparked a clear alignment opportunity, in 2009, to bring a project called with Tree-preneurs by Wildtrust NGO, to the Western Cape.

This project teaches members of impoverished communities how to care for plants so that once the seedlings they’ve been given to nurture are big enough, they can be exchanged livelihood essentials.

Spier provides land, water, electricity and materials with which to operate, as well as the project manager, now Neil Graha,. Neil visits the growers weekly to deliver seedlings, containers, soil, and compost while sharing knowledge about different tree species. Once these have reached a certain length, they can be exchanged for vouchers for food, clothing, agricultural goods, tools, bicycles and educational support.

Since 2009, our partnership has seen over 310 of Tree-preneurs in six communities, including Eersterivier, Lynedoch, Mountainview, Kalkfontein, and Vlottenburg, nurture over two million indigenous trees and plant them into areas in need.

Over 6 000 containers were diverted from our waste stream into the Tree-preneurs programme, enabling the redistribution of seedlings to eager growers.

As we continue this journey, we see that every action contributes to a larger purpose. Together, we are not just managing onsite and community waste, we are fostering growth, supporting livelihoods, and nurturing our communities for a more resilient and just future.

Our farm is in the Western Cape, South Africa, and experts agree that we need to prepare for a dryer climate in the long term. We are working to secure our water future in numerous ways.

In 2007, we installed an innovative centralised environmentally friendly water treatment plant, that recycles 100% of our water. The clean water is then used to irrigate our gardens and lawns.

Our Wastewater Treatment Plant is performing well, with treated water at 49 486 kilolitres. As of the end of June 2024, our holding dam was at 100% capacity, and 65% of the stored water had been reused for irrigation on the farm.

The treatment plant also includes healing elements, such as a labyrinth, as well as elements of the work of Japanese researcher Dr Masaru Emoto.

We take a proactive approach to managing our water consumption by monitoring our daily use online, which also aids in identifying possible water leaks.

At Spier, water isn’t just conserved, it’s celebrated. We have transformed our approach to water into an unforgettable experience for visitors. Our water-sensitive design brings beauty and function together in the following ways:

Stormwater Systems: Stilling basins and wetlands manage water flow while creating havens for wildlife.
Unique Filter System: Near the Food Garden, our unique bio filter system purifies leiwater (historic irrigation channels), feeding our ponds and lakes.
Birding Paradise: Our water-wise approach has made Spier a hotspot for birdwatchers.

Every bottle of wine tells a story – not just of the grapes and the soil, but of the hands that tenderly nurture them. Our commitment goes beyond producing exceptional wines, we’re cultivating a legacy of care, respect, and ethical practices throughout our supply chain.

Our approach is simple:

Compliance with Care: We ensure our suppliers meet international standards and local legislation, primarily through WIETA (Wine and Agricultural Ethical Trading
Association) accreditation.
Growing Together: We nurture longterm relationships with suppliers who share our values and commitment to continuous improvement.

Spier is committed to leading the charge in comprehensive ethical sourcing among major bulk wine buyers through active participation in the Industry Compliance Forum, driving sectorwide improvements.

We are continually striving for change, with a specific focus on the following areas:

Embracing Global Standards: Aligning with international human rights due diligence legislation.
Raising the Bar: Continuous updating of our Supplier Code of Conduct to meet our international customer requirements and standards.
Crystal Clear: Aiming for 100% transparency and traceability in our supply chain.
Green Footprints: Expanding our carbon footprint calculations to include top Tier 1 suppliers (20% that produce 80% of the volume).

Art is as much a part of Spier as good food and wine. Art doesn’t just inspire – it moves us, and it shapes us. It offers us moments to pause and reflect – it confronts us, challenges us, and stimulates our thinking. It offers regeneration for the artist, our culture, and the visitors to our farm. We love the idea that collections of contemporary art stand as living legacies of South Africa’s heritage, with all its complexities and challenging narratives.

Guided by Dick Enthoven’s vision, the Spier Arts Trust has become the lifeblood of art at Spier. Dick believed in the transformative power of art, deeming artists as the cultural torchbearers. Today, the Spier Arts Trust helps to find and fund South African talent, nurturing emerging South African artists through projects like Creative Block.

We believe art should be accessible and enjoyed by everyone. Much of our art collection can be seen on our farm. It’s displayed in our buildings and gardens for everyone to enjoy. We rotate works and curate them in fresh ways to ensure all the artists we support get their well-deserved spotlight.

The Spier Art Collection is an extensive collection of more than 3 200 modern Southern African artworks. About 1 000 of them are on the farm for everyone to see and enjoy. Every year, we invite up-and-coming curators to work with our collection to offer new perspectives via their vision.

Curatorship is also an art, and this programme is a valuable experience for young curators. It makes it possible for them to tell new stories and present fresh narratives their way. Sometimes these refreshed exhibitions will remain on the farm, and sometimes they get to travel to other destinations and venues, which helps give exposure to the artists.

Our art collection and relationships with artists, galleries, curators and all things art-related, are managed by the Spier Arts Trust.

The Creative Block project invites established and emerging artists to work on blank blocks. Curator Tamlin Blake workshops with the artists, offering guidance and helping to guide their work. Selected works are then bought by the Spier Arts Trust for resale, creating a vital revenue stream for many artists that covers their basic expenses and enables them to continue operating as full-time artists. The project also gives artists the opportunity to expand their creativity and artistic territory, and gain considerable exposure by connecting with art collectors worldwide.

Collectors then choose several blocks and hang them together, building an impactful, collective artwork that has the potential to be greater than the sum of its parts. Because of the synergy between this process and the art of blending wine, Spier named its blended wine range after the project – the award-winning Creative Block 2, 3 and 5 wines.

The mosaic artworks at Spier were created by students and graduates of the three-year Spier Artisan Apprenticeship Programme, which ran from 2008 to 2020.

Offering three years of employment-based training in professional Mosaic and Ceramic as an art medium, the programme provided emerging artisans (the majority of which are from previously disadvantaged backgrounds) with quality training – empowering them with the necessary artistic and business skills to run their own businesses successfully after graduation.

Although the programme has concluded, the Spier Arts Trust continues to build on its legacy by finding opportunities for its 68 graduates to specialise in collaborative and experimental work with fine artists, designers and architects in the conceptualising, manufacture and installation of large-scale contemporary artworks in these exciting mediums. The alumni are still actively engaged in producing mosaic, either through opportunities that arise through Spier Arts Trust or their own marketing efforts.

The Dying Slave
Between the Spier Hotel and the Werf, you’ll encounter the nine soaring columns that together make up The Dying Slave. The design for this mosaic was done digitally by Marco Cianfanelli, using a photographic source, based on Michelangelo’s image of a male slave in the ecstatic throes of dying. Mosaic panels were placed on both sides of the columns, with one side of the column featuring a “positive” image and the other a ‘negative’ (inversion) of the same image. This 42.6 square metre mosaic artwork consists of almost 225,000 pieces of tesserae (mosaic pieces). Ten mosaic artists worked for five months to complete it.

Uthomi
In 2019, a mosaic sculptural fountain designed by Mozambican artist Lizette Chirrime was installed near Vadas Smokehouse & Bakery. Celebrating and showcasing Chirrime’s talent for combining colour and abstract form, it offers a vibrant playground for the imagination. The artwork forms the fountain floor, and its mosaic surface is flush with the surrounding surface, encouraging visitors to engage with the installation and water.

Spier History Trails
In 2020, the Mosaic Kraal also became home to Spier History Trails. Overlaid on the path spanning the precinct’s length, the work pays tribute to the multitude of unacknowledged people that have lived and worked here over the past millennia. Their names might not have been recorded but the flow of their daily lives, and the animals they tended, have left their indelible tracks throughout the memory of the farm. The design, by an anonymous artist, was painstakingly translated into mosaic using natural stone and Venetian smalti (opaque glass paste).

The Spier Mosaic Kraal
Situated between the Wine Collection Point and Spier Tastings, the Spier Mosaic Kraal features the works of 16 contemporary South African artists. It is South Africa’s first permanent outdoor exhibition of mosaic. 20 images from the Creative Block project were interpreted as mosaic artworks by the Spier Artisan Apprenticeship Programme’s apprentices. The images were chosen for their extraordinary visual impact, their ability to be successfully interpreted using the medium of mosaic, and the challenging characteristics that would enable the apprentices working on them to gain the skills needed to become expert mosaicists. Together the artworks illustrate the variety and vibrancy of mosaic as a medium – a contemporary African reinvention of this ancient art form.

We believe art should be accessible and enjoyed by everyone, and we take pride in bringing art to life in various shapes and forms to spark conversation and support the South Africa’s arts community.

Each year, the farm comes alive during Autumn for Spier Light Art — a month-long nighttime adventure featuring a remarkable array of interactive artworks that use light, sound and video displayed across the historic Stellenbosch farm. South African artists and designers are funded partially or completely by the Spier Arts Trust.

Internationally acclaimed theatre director and playwright, Brett Bailey, has for many years, conceptualised and brought to life performances by leading local cultural talents on the farm. Some of the spectacles include Constellations, a series of fireside performances; Talking Heads, an innovative intellectual speed-dating concept; and Summer Dream, a surreal and magical spectacle.

At Spier, we consider everything that comes onto the farm and carefully consider whatever leaves it. We work closely with the Stellenbosch Municipality to achieve our zero waste-to-landfill target, and conduct ongoing in-house training through the It’s Sorted staff programme.

We are constantly looking at innovations around more sustainable and environmentally-friendly packaging.

19 600 kg pa Plastic reduction: By glueing wine boxes, we have eliminated plastic packaging tape in production. 10 600 kg pa Paper recycling: We partner with Re-a-Liner Pty Ltd to recycle all glassine release liners (backing paper) from our locally produced wine labels. 115 002 kg pa Glass reduction: By changing six products to lighter-weight bottles in 2022, we have saved this amount of glass from our waste stream every year.

We are always looking to pioneer new workplace practices that not only address structural inequality but also enhance the working experience for all our team members. Our goal is to create fulfilling roles at every level of our business, fostering a culture of inclusivity and support. Some of these include:

On-site clinic: Our on-site clinic stands as the cornerstone of our comprehensive healthcare service and handled 769 consults over the past year. Here, occupational and clinical care come together to nurture the wellbeing of our Spier family.

Committing to a living wage: At Spier, we believe that addressing inequality through fair wages is not just a moral imperative; it is essential for building a sustainable future where everyone can thrive together.

Building financial resilience: By partnering with a service provider to offer instant advances, we enable employees to access funds quickly without the crippling interest rates associated with predatory lending.

Individual Learning Spend: employee receives funds to spend on their personal development. This allocation can be used for a wide range of purposes that contribute to an individual’s overall well-being and advancement.

We believe in the power of young people to shape our future. We are tackling the challenge of youth unemployment head-on, and our approach is rooted in care, practical support, and real-world opportunities.

We have crafted targeted programmes that open doors for young people in our community. Our team takes the time to understand each young person’s unique strengths and dreams. We focus on building practical, marketable skills that set our youth up for long-term success.

Through these efforts, we’re not just offering work experience, we’re nurturing careers, fostering independence, and contributing to a brighter more inclusive future for our community, farming, and the wine and hospitality industries at large.

Our Initiatives in Action
We’ve partnered with YES (Youth Employment Service) to provide one-year work experiences for previously disadvantaged youth aged 18–34. YES is an initiative in South Africa aimed at addressing youth unemployment and providing young people with opportunities for work experience and skills
development. It focuses on:

Work Experience: Offering young people, the chance to gain practical work experience in various sectors.
Skills Development: Providing training and mentorship to enhance employability.
Job Creation: Partnering with businesses to create job opportunities for youth.

We have set our sights on ambitious goals. We are working towards a net zero-aligned target by 2030 and setting long-term science-based targets to reach net-zero value chain GHG emissions by no later than 2050. Here’s how we’re working towards this:

Measuring Our Footprint: We’re proud to be recognised as a Carbon Hero of the South African fruit and wine industry for our consistent reporting.

Expanding Our Scope: We’re not just looking at our own operations. We’re mapping our entire supply chain’s carbon footprint and collaborating with our suppliers to reduce emissions together.

Energy Efficiency: By 2017, we had already reduced our greenhouse gas emissions from electrical consumption by 30% compared to 2009 levels. But we didn’t stop there! Our Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions have reduced by 9% from 2023 to 2024. Scope 3 reporting has been expanded to include our transport of goods and services in 2024, so while our overall carbon footprint has increased, this is to improve the accuracy of our reporting beyond Scope 1 and Scope 2. We will see a continued increase in Scope 3 as we extend and understand our impacts better.

Solar Farm: We’re designing a purposeful 1.8MW solar plant. This isn’t just about generating clean energy; it’s about creating a seamless, integrated power system for our entire farm. This won’t be about flipping a switch to renewable energy—it’s about reimagining how we use our land. Early studies suggest that some crops thrive under solar panels, and we can boost the habitats for local flora and fauna.

Spier helps entrepreneurs — many of the former employees — to launch and successfully run their own small businesses.

The range of support Spier offer these start-ups includes mentorship, finance, equipment and facilities. Purchasing guarantees at launch also provide the entrepreneurs with the income they need to get their businesses up and running.

HELPING LOCAL START-UPS THRIVE
The successful small businesses we’ve incubated include Klein Begin (which provides laundry services to Spier Hotel), Debinisa (a transport company), Primo Vino (which reworks and repackages Spier wines for different markets) and Mountain View Tank Services ( a bulk wine transport service). Since 2017, Spier’s staff restaurant has been independently owned and run by former staff member Noviwe “Sweetness” Lubisi, while WAS Laboratory, has been providing wine analysis for Spier’s winemaking team since 2019.

Primo Vino Packaging and Reworks
Employing 10 people, Primo Vino reworks and repackages Spier wines to meet different customers and markets’ requirements. Established in 2009 by Shaun Theunissen, a former Spier employee, Primo Vino operates from Spier’s Buitepost warehouse where all our exports, warehousing and local distribution is centralised.

Debinisa Transport Company
Caswill Mentoor was a driver and messenger for Spier when, in 2009, he approached Spier to partner him in his own transport company. Spier facilitated the formation of Debinisa, a black-empowered joint-venture between Caswill and one of our established transport contractors, Louw Vervoer. In addition to being used extensively by Spier, Debinisa also services several other customers.

Mountainview Tank Services
Owned by Reynold Visser, Mountain View Tank Services provides a bulk wine transport service, taking wine to our bottling plant supplier from either our own cellar or from the cellars of our bulk wine suppliers. With a secure service commitment from Spier, Visser secured bank finance, acquiring his own vehicle for the start-up.

Klein Begin On-site Laundry Service
Spier built the infrastructure then called for tenders from the community to run an on-site laundry. Klein Begin employs five people from the region and launders large volumes from the Spier Hotel and restaurants.

WAS Laboratory
Merecia Smith, a former Spier employee, has launched WAS Laboratory, the Western Cape’s first black-owned wine analysis laboratory. Spier has provided a loan for the purchase of new equipment as well as free rent, electricity, water and internet for her first two years of operating. We are also assisting with accounting and administrative services to allow Merecia to focus on her lab work. Over the next few years, mentoring from Spier staff will help her gain the business know-how to operate independently.

Our commitment to soil health is at the heart of our regenerative practices. Since pioneering regenerative agriculture on Spier Home Farm, we have extended the baseline establishment to four other farms, totalling 68% of our production.

Embracing Low-Till Farming
Since 2015, we’ve implemented low-till practices across our vineyards and pastures. Low-till farming at Spier has increased our soil’s water retention capacity—an improvement that is crucial in our water-scarce region.

Cover Cropping
We’ve introduced a diverse mix of cover crops between our vine rows, including legumes, grains, and Brassicas. Multi-species cover crops enhance soil biodiversity and attract beneficial insects. Different soil types require different mixes, assisting with feeding the soil microbiome that facilitates carbon fixing and releases micronutrients to the vines. Our cover crop programme has increased soil organic matter across our vineyards.

Compost
We produce over 1,000 tonnes of compost annually from our own farm waste. This compost is enriched with beneficial microorganisms and applied to our vineyards and gardens.

High-Density Grazing
Livestock play a crucial role in our soil health strategy. We practice high-density grazing, mimicking natural herd movements. This method has increased carbon sequestration rates by 17 times compared to conventional grazing.

Monitoring and Adaptive Management
We conduct regular soil and leaf analysis to monitor nutrient levels, organic matter content, and microbial activity. Our team uses this data to make informed decisions about soil amendments and management practices.

We’re not stopping here. Our future soil health initiatives include:

Expanding our cover crop diversity to include more indigenous species.
Collaborating with specialists to build soil microbiome diversity and create a more resilient ecosystem conducive to carbon fixing.
Sharing our soil health knowledge with other farmers in our supply chain, spreading the benefits beyond our farm boundaries.
Developing and applying more precision farming methods to optimise resource use and build resilience for the future.

The Living Soils Community Learning Farm, launched in 2019, is a testament to the power of collaboration and collective impact in addressing some of our most pressing challenges. This innovative project brings together Spier, Woolworths Trust, Community Inclusive Justice NPC, and the Sustainability Institute in a shared vision of regenerative agriculture and community empowerment. Together, we’re cultivating a space where:

Regenerative farming practices flourish.
A new generation of farmers grows in skills and confidence.
Local communities find solutions to food insecurity.
The farm isn’t just a place of production, it’s a living classroom and demonstration site.

By turning our farm into a living classroom, we show how nutritious food can be grown while enhancing soil health and biodiversity through eco-friendly methods. Our journey began with careful land preparation, introducing beneficial microorganisms and nutrients before planting a diverse range of vegetables. The results have been inspiring in produce generate, as well as the growing number of graduates: 9 graduates in 2022, to 15 in 2023 and 16 in 2024.

Collectively the partners believe that this approach to nurturing new farmers could be a blueprint for addressing food security and youth unemployment. We are growing hope, opportunity, and a thriving future for all.

Housed in The Shed at Spier, the Living Arts Foundation (LAF) connects, uplifts and empowers the Lynedoch Valley community through arts, creativity, physical movement and personal development.

The LAF facilitates psychosocial support for community members, enhancing well-being, developing skills, and creating positive transformations in themselves, their families, and their communities.

THE PROGRAMMES

Stellenbosch Gymnastics: This programme uses gymnastics to nurture self-awareness, self-respect and self-discipline among those who practice the sport and promote general mental and physical well-being.

The After Image Studio: The LAF’s visual arts initiative is a space where art sessions, workshops and courses enable community members and children to use art to develop self-awareness and a sense of well-being. In a safe and nurturing environment, they are supported to express themselves creatively to process their emotions and work through the difficulties they are experiencing.

The Crafter’s Corner: Our pottery studio facilitates weekly community classes for women residing on nearby farms. Here they create ceramics available for sale at various outlets in greater Stellenbosch. Additional weekly classes are open to the public: an opportunity to unleash your creativity and express yourself through clay. Classes can also be booked for groups (e.g., birthdays, team-building workshops, etc.). The Crafter’s Corner also offers clay mindfulness workshops which serve as a therapeutic tool for community members.

Mozart’s Balanced Riding: This programme offers vaulting – gymnastics on horseback – to children. This safe and exhilarating introduction to horses and horseriding has a multitude of therapeutic benefits. These include improvements in low muscle tone, concentration, coordination, self-esteem, depression, anxiety, mental handicaps, school performance and spatial awareness. As the children work with the horses and other kids, they hone empathy (as they are required to think about the safety of others) and learn how to take turns and offer each other support.

Flying Fitness Aerial Silks Studio: This programme is where community members (both children and adults) can experience aerial silks. Silks is commonly known as a circus artform where an aerial acrobat performs daring tricks hanging from two pieces of material draped from the ceiling. The studio has taught hundreds of people to climb, twist and invert their bodies in enchanting sequences. The programme improves self-esteem and reduces anxiety (it has been especially helpful in helping people to overcome their fear of heights). Aerial silks also aid upper-body and core strength, overall flexibility, and decompression of lower back and spine. Regular performances, which are not compulsory, offer a wonderful opportunity for students to present their skills and for the community to come together to cheer on participants. Practice sessions foster camaraderie and confidence among those who attend.