Some places are just filled with such an incredible energy and I’ve always felt that way about Journey’s End Vineyards. A bit of a hidden gem tucked away in Sir Lowry’s Pass. I’d been invited over a year ago to visit the wine farm and fell in love with their wines.

Then in late January/early February this year when my sister came down from England to visit, she to raved about their wines. Even though they weren’t open to the public since they were busy with their harvest. We were fortunate to be able to visit and have a very special wine-tasting.

A very modern 250-ton cellar provides winemaker, Mike Dawson with all the tools to produce the highest-quality wines with minimal interference in the natural winemaking process. Just to be able to have the time to chat with Leon was a privilege in itself. For such a young and highly talented winemaker his knowledge is astounding and he is incredibly humble. In every wine you can taste the amount of skill and passion he has.

Even though our visit to the wine farm was 8 months ago, due to lockdown it feels far longer. Not only do they put an immense amount of care into their winemaking process. They are also champions in their community. Journey’s End Vineyards have recently launched The Journey’s End Foundation, the latest community project from the winery.

“Set up as an NGO, Rollo Gabb, MD, and his team have established the Foundation to tackle hunger and extreme poverty in the Helderberg region of Stellenbosch – largely as a result of Covid-19.

The Journey’s End Foundation has set up a network of Soup Kitchens in the Helderberg Region and has initially committed to providing 8,000 meals per week, with a target of achieving 10,000 meals per week by the end of October 2020.

Comments Rollo Gabb, “The South African economy continues to be very badly affected by Covid 19, with the Western Cape in particular hit by zero tourism and close to zero hospitality. This coupled with a recent ban on domestic wine sales has severely impacted the wine industry, and a 10pm curfew is killing the restaurant sector, leading to a very significant increase in unemployment. With very little government support many families are now unable to bring any food to the table and starvation in the Cape is a real risk. It has been reported that some 20,000 people in Stellenbosch alone are at risk of hunger.

“We completed the set-up of the Journey’s End Foundation last month realising we needed to move fast. Journey’s End has committed funds to provide food for just over 400,000 meals through a network of nine Soup Kitchens over the coming 12 months.” 

For many years, Journey’s End has placed big focus on supporting the winery’s local community, Sir Lowry’s Pass Village. As well as providing employment at the winery, the team works closely with community heads to channel resources into a number of development programmes which included the building of a new school hall for the local school in Sir Lowry’s Pass village.  This is where many of the local children received their only meal of the day. With schools currently shut these children are going hungry.

In setting up the Foundation, they have worked closely with Hettie Orffer, CEO and Developer of the ‘Beat the Bully’ programme – another programme funded exclusively by Journeys End, which focuses on eradicating bullying in the Cape townships through education and intervention.”

For more details about The Journey’s End Foundation please email info@journeysend.co.za