On 17 April 2015, DGB Wines formally received its cheque of R20 000 as one of the winners in the inaugural Standard Bank/Chenin Blanc Top 10 Challenge, held in August 2014. As per the stipulations of the competition, the wine producers will invest the money in a project that will benefit its workforce – in this case, a R2.5 million mobile library that will serve nine farm schools in Du Toitskloof Valley.

In May 2015, DGB Wines and Du Toitskloof Cellars Winery will launch a major education project – a R2.5 million mobile library/media centre that will, over a two-week cycle, service nine farm schools in the Franschoek region.

On 17 April, the project received another boost – the R20 ,000 prize money that DGB had won in the inaugural Standard Bank/Chenin Blanc Top Ten Challenge, hosted in 2014 by the Chenin Blanc Association of South Africa (CBA) and sponsored by Standard Bank for three years from 2014-2016. DGB’s “rich and ripe” Bellingham the Old Orchard’s 2013 had been included in that list of South Africa’s finest Chenin Blancs.

The prize money will go towards the library – simply known as the DGB/Du Toitskloof Mobile Library – per the stipulations of the Standard Bank/Chenin Blanc Top Ten Challenge. While most wine competitions reward the winemakers, the organisers decided that the prize money “must be used to reinforce the economic and social benefits in the workplace and to the workforce.”

Which is what the mobile library will do, servicing nine farm schools in the Du Toitskloof Valley region where learners have little or no access to public libraries. The library will be officially launched on 14 May 2015.

The R20 000 will be used to purchase a wide selection of books and electronic resources, explained Ree du Toit, Production Director at DGB. “We want the learners, as well as younger users and parents to make use of the library,” he/she said when the winemaker received its cheque from Willie du Plessis, Head of Business Banking: Western Cape at Standard Bank, at the Franschoek Cellars on 17 April.

“The learners can not only take out books, but also use the computers for research and projects.”

DGB had been involved in the establishment of the mobile library for some time, so it made sense to also direct the award towards the project, explained Niel Groenewald, Bellingham Chief Winemaker at DGB. The winemakers may not pocket the prize money, but the competition offers a different reward for them as it has created a platform where the many Chenin Blanc wines in the country can finally be rated.

“So it’s not so much about the money as it is a review process that would determine which are the 10 best Chenin Blancs in the country, and which wines would be set as the benchmark,” said Mr Groenewald.

“That’s why we entered the competition, and why we – who see ourselves as a Chenin Blanc leader – are pleased with being among the top 10.”

This ranking was one of the main objectives behind the Standard Bank/Chenin Blanc Top Ten Challenge, said Ina Smith, Manager of the CBA. “Chenin Blanc is now getting the recognition it deserves, and the top 10 is just a snapshot of the greatness that awaits the consumers.”

Standard Bank chose to back the competition because of the value the wine industry adds to the country, both as an earner of foreign exchange and as a job creator, noted Mr du Plessis. “As a bank we want to invest in and support the wine industry to grow,” he said. “In this case we looked at a particular cultivar, a cultivar that we believe will grow and offer consumers something different.”