The OVP, in conjunction with Vititec, worked to develop virus-free Heritage Selection clones in order to take the industry into the next phase of ‘planting to grow old’. This philosophy of developing vineyards that will continue to deliver grapes of outstanding quality for use in winemaking as they grow older has been boosted by the Heritage Selection clones, which are free of all known viruses. These clones will soon be available to be propagated and used in vineyard production.
To achieve this virus-free status, individual vines were selected in different blocks from the best old vine vineyards in the Cape and ‘cleaned’ of any viruses that may have been present. This process is known as heat therapy and is conducted under laboratory conditions. This is a lengthy process and the virus-free plants will only be ready to be planted on a one-hectare parcel of land on the Ferreira family’s farm, Pietersklip, in four years’ time. Pietersklip is situated on Die Berg mountain near Clanwilliam on the Cape West Coast.
The OVP, Vititec and the Ferreiras decided to use this organic farm as the base for the project because of its biodiverse system which includes vast areas of indigenous fynbos, trees and other forms of plant life. Due the isolation of the farm, which has no adjacent vineyards for many kilometres, the vines have the potential to remain virus free. Rosa explains: “We want to plant as closely to nature as we possibly can; rather than dominating nature, we want to follow nature. If we plant the virus-free Heritage Selection plant material propagated from our oldest vineyards and we farm them to stay clean, we have the potential to provide plant material that can make exceptional wines in the future.”