The wine industry has been hard hit by the Covid-19 pandemic, but Sophie Germanier was brave enough to launch her own wine brand.
Germanier left Switzerland to join her father in South Africa in 2014 when she came to help manage the wine farm Sonop, near Paarl that he had purchased in 1991. By 2005 they had transformed the wine estate to be fully organic, which she said was them building for the future.
“The farm has been organic since 2005 and we were one of the first in South Africa to convert into organic farming and we have been certified since then,” said Germanier.
Her father died in 2017 and now she is ready to move from wine farming to wine trading, and last month launched her wine brand Organic Wine by Sophie Germanier.
She said: “I will not be involved in the wine farming anymore so I will have more time time to focus on the local and export market. A portion of the organic grapes does come from Sonop Wine Estate.”
There are two wines on the shelves, a red and a white blend. Germanier said up until recently she didn’t believe the market was ready for organic wine. “Until this year we were mostly exporting to Sweden, Switzerland, Germany and to China where we have export accreditation.
In the local market, people were not ready for organic wine yet.“ She added: “But now I launched the brand a month ago because I saw there was a demand and a gap in the market for an organic and vegan wine.”
Organic wine contains few sulphates, just enough to preserve the wine; no pesticides and chemicals are used in the vineyards.
Germanier said: “We don’t use any pesticides or chemical fertiliser and the maximum sulphate needs to be monitored, sulphate helps the preservation of wine but it will naturally contain sulphate. It can be added but just for preservation.”
The Covid-19 pandemic changed the world and although it had a devastating impact on the local wine industry, Germanier said she saw the business opportunity. “I do think that Covid-19 changed people’s perceptions of nature and also what is important and what really matters. People are more and more conscientious about what they eat and what they drink and also maybe the consequences that their behaviour will have on the environment.”
Her red wine is a cabernet sauvignon, merlot, shiraz blend and the white wine is a sauvignon blanc/semillon. Last month when she launched the wines, she also sent samples that were entered into the Organic Wine Awards in Germany. Germanier said both wines took home gold awards which is encouraging that she is on the track.
The price point of her wines was also important for her business to succeed and she has ensured that wine lovers can buy a bottle of her wine for under R100. Germanier said: “I really wanted to price it right for the market because people will buy wine, but people can’t always afford a R250 or R300 bottle of wine.”
She runs the business solo, but as the market gets a taste of her organic offering, Germanier wants to expand the business and the bottles of wine she can supply.