Be warned that local South African, Phillip Kubukeli, president of the Western Cape Traditional Doctors, Herbalists and Spiritual Healers’ Association says that wine that is contaminated with chameleon blood is poisonous to humans.

(South African Mail and Guardian, Fiona Macleod, ‘Chameleons Mulched Into Wine’, 20th February 1998)

By insisting that the wine you drink has been harvested by hand you protect yourself as well as helping to conserve our fragile ecology for future generations. If you are drinking handpicked South African wine you can also help improve the appalling conditions and poverty which the Grape-pickers of the Western Cape currently endure.

Ultimately we would like to see that all wine blended or produced with mechanically harvested grapes be withdrawn from the market.

Here is a list of Wine Estates that ensure socially and ecologically sounds farming practices. There may be other wines that are ecologically sound so if your favourite wine does not appear on this list why not do some research or contact the estate and challenge them to keep you as a customer by proving that they are socially and environmentally aware.

1.Auberge Rozendal,
www.rozendal.co.za

2.Bon Cap Organic Wine Farm,
www.boncaporganic.co.za

3.Klein Genot,
www.africa-adventure.org/k/kleingenot

4.Reyneke Wines
www.reynekewines.co.za

5.Stellar Organics,
www.stellarorganics.com

6.Terroir
www.kelinezalze.de/main/

7.Green Wine

8.Upland Estate,
http://oettle.com

9.Lushof Group http://r.vandermerwe.tripod.com/LUSHOF-HOME1.htm

10.Southern Cape Vineyards http://www.scv.co.za/home.html

11.Meerrust

12.Laibach Wines
http://www.laibachwines.com/
Producers of The Ladybird Organic 2004, selected by Wine of the Month Club as South Africa's best Organic wine.

13.Waverley Hills Organic Wines http://www.ewine.co.za/southafricanwinery.php?wineryID=130&winery=Waverley%20Hills%20Organic%20Wines

14.Waverley Hills
www.waverlyhills.co.za

15.Jordon Winery

Please contact us if you have any suggestions.