Historic Pinotage vineyard to be destroyed

Bellevue Estate's historic vineyard that was planted in 1953 and produced in 1961 the first varietal Pinotage* is due to be excavated in order to mine underlying clay.

The mining company says that the land will be restored after the clay is extracted.

Most agricultural crops are planted annually. Even were it possible to remove these old vines and replant them once the land was 'restored', the underlying terroir will have changed completely.

If you would email your concern to the mining company and responsible goverment minister it would be much appreciated by me and Bellevues owner Dirkie Morkel.

Details at www.pinotage.org/2010/03/historic-pinot ... to-be.html

*The vineyard was planted by P K Morkel who made the wine in 1959 and sold it to SFW (Stellenbosch Farmers Winery) who marketed under the Lanzerac brand name in 1961

Peter:

Who owns the land? If the land is not owned by the mining company or the government, is this a matter wherein the government is exercising some "right" such as "eminent domain"? As an American, this chain of events (government supplanting property rights) sounds absurd, although things are also changing for the worse here, as of late....

If SA is like the United States, it's not who owns the land, but who owns the mineral rights to what's under the land. If an oil company decided that oil was underneath my 15 acres, there is not a damned thing I could do legally to stop them from drilling, because my ownership is for surface rights only. I'd have to be paid a trespass fee if said oil company actually drilled, but I couldn't stop them.