The Wine and Spirit Board will be introducing a new seal as from 2010. This seal links the IPW system to the Wine of Origin system, thereby also certifying that the wine has been sustainably produced.

This seal will be available from 2010 to those producers who qualify and who wish to use it – i.e. on a voluntary basis. The current seal certifying origin, vintage and varietal will continue to be available for those producers who are not able to use the new seal.

To qualify for the new seal: every link in the supply chain has to be IPW accredited – the farm, the winery and the bottling plant. Note the new seal is linked all the way back to the SAWIS authority to press grapes (BG1).

If grapes are bought from many growers, or wine is blended from several tanks, each and every production unit has to be IPW accredited. To be IPW producers/wineries/bottlers all have to be registered members of the IPW scheme, have completed and submitted their self-evaluation forms for 2009, and passed.

If a farm/cellar/bottler is not a member, they can join the scheme and complete the assessment, but they will need an audit before they qualify as IPW accredited.

The new seal looks like this:

While some other countries have sustainability accreditation and are introducing seals on a limited scale, no other country has the ability to introduce and certify sustainability nationally through a government agency like the Wine and Spirit Board.

This is another big step forward in South Africa’s eco-friendly practices and a world first. Not only are we certifying the integrity of the wine in terms of vintage, variety and origin, but also both the sustainability of the production and traceability.

The new scheme is being named Sustainable Wine South Africa and a new website is under construction, www.swsa.co.za. This URL will be on the seal and ultimately consumers will be able to go to the website, enter the seal numbers and trace their bottle of wine all the way back to the IPW practices in the vineyard.