The Journey’s End estate sits in a magical location at the southeastern tip of Stellenbosch, facing the Atlantic and overlooked by Helderberg Mountain – Afrikaans for ‘shining mountain’. Its vineyards benefit from a unique terroir, with 350-million-year-old decomposed granite soils and the cooling sea breeze from False Bay, known locally as the ‘Cape Doctor’.
Originally from Shropshire, the Gabb family were struck by the natural beauty of the site, and founded the winery in 1996. ‘It’s a beautiful place to make wine,’ says winemaker Mike Dawson. ‘So the primary aim and focus at Journey’s End is to produce terroir-driven wine, with minimum manipulation.’
Winemaker Mike Dawson in the Journey’s End winery. Credit: Halima Beale
Preserving, not exploiting, the land
Just as powerful, however, is Journey’s End’s desire to protect this special environment and preserve it for future generations. This is the philosophy behind numerous initiatives in the winery and vineyards, including planting 10,500 spekboom succulent plants on the estate to capture carbon.
‘We try to reuse and recycle absolutely everything that we can,’ says Dawson; the winery’s waste water, for example, is treated and recycled, and the farm captures rainwater to use ‘for drip irrigation – as opposed to putting pressure on local resources.’
Journey’s End was the second winery in South Africa to convert to solar power. ‘The roofs of our cellars are completely covered in solar panels,’ notes Dawson. ‘We’ve recently installed a ginormous inverter and battery station, so even on overcast days, we’re still able to store electrical capacity. This means that we’re completely off-grid.’
Spekboom bushes on the Journey’s End estate. Credit: Halima Beale
Sustaining the community
At Journey’s End, caring for the environment is inherently linked to caring for the people living in that environment. The Journey’s End Foundation was launched at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 to help tackle hunger and poverty in local communities. ‘We have six different female-run soup kitchens,’ explains Dawson. ‘Anyone from the community can go there and have a nutritious meal every day.’ The foundation has handed out over five million meals – and counting – and supports education and community outreach programmes to protect people from bullying and support victims of gender-based violence.
Journey’s End will continue to grow and develop both its community and environmental projects. ‘At the end of the day, we are just custodians of the land that we farm on,’ concludes Dawson. ‘So for future generations to learn from our innovations and our practices is even more beneficial than what we’re doing at the moment.’
Credit: Halima Beale
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