Mavis Vannie Lavis is my bestest Face Book girlvriend, so what wine to recommend for one of her Bles Bridges Aande?  Adama 2012, a fragrant white blend from Bosman Family Vineyards in Wellington. Made by descendants of Adam Appollis nicknamed Adama, it warms the cockles to see the people who actually make the stuff remembered and rewarded out of sales rather than just the providers of capital. A reverse ego-trip of a wine and all the tastier for it. Here are two other friends of Mavis, Jan and Luan, enjoying a bottle at Societi Bistro as our favourite Bo Kaap restaurants are drier than the Sahara and Food Inn India is opposite the mosque.

The motto on the back label reads “faith, hope, love” which is one of the sayings of Mavis. It is a great match for non-observers with chicken biryani take-away from Food Inn India (R35). The Bosman family are leading lights in the Fair Trade ethical trading movement that is fast becoming the industry standard in SA in spite of a strong push for competitor WIETA by Vinpro for political reasons.

Fair Trade is a 5 billion euro-a-year global movement “which touches the lives of millions of growers and shoppers.” WIETA is a minnow compared to a whale.  And we’re not talking the lavishly pubic haired troll of SA blogging here, either. The latest producer to sign up is Charles Back from Fairview, another nail in the coffin of WIETA. The press release cannot help but crow and there will be much wringing of hands, searching for scape goats and general wailing at Vinpro.

“Already famed for its iconic Goat Tower, award-winning wines, jersey cow and goat’s milk cheeses, Fairview’s most recent accomplishment is its newly-acquired Fairtrade certification for its wines. Owner Charles Back has always placed significant importance on social accountability as part of the of the Fairview ethos. Fairtrade accreditation will allow Fairview to further build upon its existing projects, bringing further benefit and upliftment to the surrounding farming community.

While Fairview’s 10 farms spanning Paarl, Darling and Stellenbosch have all been Fairtrade accredited, Back has selected its biggest, most established and most successful wine range to carry the logo – and maximise the benefit to the community.”

Sources say that the involvement in WIETA of WOSA ex-CEO Su Birch, for a long time a hugely divisive force in SA wine, will come to an end at the end of the year, so hopefully a merger of the two ethical initiatives can be speedily executed with a major stumbling block removed from the equation.